Astro Zombies
by La.Grammatica.Nazi
Summary: CH 23-24! Green Flu swept the nation, destroyed families and society.A medley of friends are caught in the middle. However, there does seem to be an underlying cause of it all...leaving them few options: wait it out, or die understanding. OCs/L4D2
1. Dressed to Kill

**A/N: So, I'm aware that I've used Rikki before, but I feel she is my most developed character at this point of my sad writing hobby. I'll just treat it like she already knew what happened to her in my other story; Love Bites...which will be completed soon...just after my head gets over the whole zombie apocalypse thing that it's really into right now. I only own my own characters; I have no right to the Misfits song title and no rights to the characters from the radical game; Left 4 Dead 2. **

**I hope you like it! :)**

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**ASTRO ZOMBIES**

**Chapter One: Dressed to Kill**

"Hey get up Rikki! Get up! GET UP!" Bandit spouted; it was four-thirty in the afternoon and Rikki was still asleep. "It's Gavin's birthday! Jude wanted us over right away!"

I hopped out of bed and slapped on a pair of jeans and a different shirt. While I was combing my hair, I heard my mom's footsteps coming down the hall and the door creaked open.

"Hey, Rikki...oh dear...Are you really going to a birthday party dressed like _that_?" She frowned slightly at my attire. She quickly examined my closet and pulled out a dress she had given me that was hers in the 80's. It was an acid-washed denim corset with a lace-ridden skirt that was pretty short, but it looked good nonetheless...if you were going to a club, maybe...not a twelve year olds birthday party. "There, that's better."

"Mom, why are you wearing _my_ dress?" I was utterly confused; my silk black dress I bought for a birthday party a few years back was flowing gently behind her legs as she stepped around the room, re-organizing my organized room. I flicked on the T.V so there would be noise instead of dead silence. The news was playing vaguely while my mother chose to talk over the 'Breaking News' bit. Something about some government secret in the States, nothing new that would affect Canada, since the boarders were more secured than ever and the States were on lockdown. I didn't really know what to make of it since my mom's voice was overpowering the report.

"Well, I'm going to this birthday party too, you know it _is_ a social event and I can't have my adult daughter strut around in unsuitable clothing." Mom waved her hand in a dismissive matter. I didn't see how dressing like...well this...was any better than plain jeans and t-shirt. Well, okay, _maybe _the jeans had holes in them and my shirt was an Iron Maiden one with Eddie's face sprawled across it over the words 'Aces High'. But dressing like I was ready to hit the night life wasn't suitable for a kid's birthday party. I shrugged; I didn't feel like arguing over things my mom disagreed with. I suddenly cringed knowing that I was legally an adult by Canadian laws. It was strange though...my mom _never_ cared about social events or what have you; she said just be yourself and have fun. That was always her motto. Maybe she wasn't feeling well or something. I flicked off the T.V after seeing no one was interested, even if the corner was labelled as 'Emergency Broadcast'.

I stepped outside and waited by the navy blue Ford Focus my parents had acquired under my name for grad. After I made the next payment, it would be officially mine. I sat there fiddling with the mirrors and listening to a Runaways song and tapping the steering wheel in beat until my parents filed out and a grumpy looking Bandit shadowed making a face at the back of my mother's head. She was dressed up in her black dress that had a fuchsia satin top part that was pleated in the middle and had four black buttons arranged in a square. It looked nice, but knowing my sister, she was just as unhappy in a dress as I was. My dad was wearing black dress pants with a plain white dress shirt and a navy clip-on tie. I felt a pang of jealousy; _guys_ didn't have to dress up as much as girls, they just threw on fancier clothing and shinier shoes and they were good to go. Shrugging it off, I started the engine and drove towards Jude's house.

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I noticed something strange; there were a LOT of kids dressed up and walking around into different houses. How many birthdays were there? I looked at Bandit in the rear view mirror; she looked just as confused as I did. We pulled up at the small duplex that had the little family of 'Pirates' living space. There were people filing into the place dressed fancy; Jude was at the door, seemingly waiting for us. She looked miserable in a green floral dress that was puffy from the tulle petticoat, with a pink ribbon at the waist that divided the top part that was white and ruffled like a little girls dress; the hem line was quite short.

"Hey guys..." Jude sighed in a tone of defeat, "My _mom_ made me wear this...the last time I fucking wore it was when I was _eight_ dudes! Eight! Anyways...the party's down here."

Jude led us down into a crowd of overly dressed people holding champagne and wine. Shaking my head absentmindedly, I wandered over to the punch table and scooped out some of the alcoholic one. Smiling that my parents couldn't say much about it; I saw some people on the road below the window pass in dresses or tuxes looking around in a daze. I couldn't quite think of what to think; all the adults were acting strange...sure some of them were normal by their standards, but my parents and numerous others were acting out of place.

"Glad you all could make it, it's time for cake." Suzie smiled graciously at everybody in the room. I looked at all the people, there were a lot that I didn't recognize, and_ Gavin_ didn't even look like he recognized any of them. She pointed to Gavin to sit in front of the neatly decorated cake while the strangers sang a chorus of 'Happy Birthday'. Sighing, Bandit and Jude signalled me to go with them. I just nodded and followed them up the stairs with a prepared lighter and joint in my bra, since I had no pockets. Before we got to leave the house entirely, my mom opened the door with a blank look on her face.

"Where are you going?" She asked in a creepily monotone voice. "Are you going to smoke pot? No, you're not. Now get back inside."

"Mom, honestly, there is too many people down there, it's stuffy and cramped. I'm not going back inside." I tilted my head indifferently towards her. She was either going to make a scene here or when we got home; I wasn't in the mood for either.

"You're grounded. Go home right now and I'll deal with you later." She gave a cold stare and went back down the stairs. Turning to Jude and Bandit, I shrugged and hopped in my car with the two sharing the backseat. As the car turned on, I found myself wondering if I was fit to drive having dipped into the alcoholic punch. I shrugged and turned to the two.

"I guess she forgot I'm nineteen already. It's hard to ground an adult." I winked at the two with a small smile. "So, where are we going?"

"I dunno the mall or something?" Jude looked bored, so I pulled out my last joint and some money for more. "Duuude!"

"Well, I'm in trouble anyways..." I shrugged, holding a lighter to the joint that was now hanging out of my mouth. I started the car as I passed the joint to the back seat. "Let's go...get a couple more joints? Jeremy's at some party...probably puking his guts up by now."

I checked the clock and nodded to confirm my theory. It was nine thirty-four, how we withstood hanging around and smiling plastically for four or so hours was beyond me. As we drove, there were a series of cop cars speeding by, not sparing a glance at the three of us smoking a very noticeable joint.

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"Hey! We should get Kay! It'll be funny!" Bandit snickered to herself. I just nodded, knowing she had something planned for her, "Who knows...maybe she'll stop acting 'fat' for a day and take a break from her zombie apocalypse!"

"Haha, she's so weird, dude." I commented aimlessly; Kay had taken a liking for acting out every bit of her favourite character. "I mean, how obsessed could you be over a game?"

"I guess you can be _very_ obsessed, dude." Jude laughed lightly, "Hey, can we go to the park or something? Maybe go to Moresby Creek or something?"

"Sure dude. But let's get Kay first." I said even though we were in front of Kay's house by then, it was just easier to state what the vague plans were. "Bandit, you go get her or something..."

"Okay, be right back!" Bandit smiled and bolted out of the car to the front door. She came running back as Kay emerged from her house, with her favourite t-shirt that read 'Bull Shifters'; leave it to Kay to be so odd.

"HI!" Kay spurted happily.

"Oh, hello Kay!" I smiled politely; sometimes, Kay could be too much, but she'd always been that way. My smile slightly deflated as I realized that all of the people I was hanging out with were two years younger than me and couldn't go into a bar or anything. Feeling older than I was, I started the car and drove off towards Moresby creek. While music played vaguely, the girls screamed along to their favourite song by My Chemical Romance; Blood. I couldn't help but join them. When we pulled to a stop by the trail entrance, I realized we were still in dresses and made a mental note to drive home and change at some point.

We made our way down the trail and came to a halt when we saw a mass of people in fancy clothing standing in a haze. Everyone had a joint or pipe of some sort. Smiling slightly, I turned to the three girls behind me and nodded towards the crowd of people, hinting that we should join. It was a little strange seeing people I recognized dress so formally; like my grad class was having a redo of prom outside. Kay looked unsure while passing through and almost flipped out when someone stuck a lit joint in her mouth; up until that point, Kay had never tried any drug besides Tylenol for headaches. She smiled however, even when she started coughing.

"That a girl, Kay." Bandit playfully slapped her friend on the back, "You're officially a man now!"

"Yay!" Kay smiled red faced. "Hey, how long are we staying here?"

"Until you're too fried to function!" Jude laughed as she stuck another joint in Kay's mouth; I guess people were just giving some away if someone didn't have anything lit.

"Duuude! Josh has a portable vape over there!" Bandit stumbled over, clearly dazed from however much she had. She waved Kay over to her and led her back to where ever she was a few moments before.

"Hey Rikki!" A guy I knew as Ed stumbled over, "You going to Frank's soon?"

"Um, probably; I have to get some stuff from Jeremy anyways." I smiled politely; I didn't quite like Jeremy's friends too much...they were awkwardly friendly to me when they were drunk and Jeremy wasn't looking.

"Cool, cool. So wanna smoke with me?" He held out a few joints which looked mighty tempting, but I was more interested in getting away from him.

"Uh, in a bit, I gotta find Bandit and shit." I smirked lopsidedly at Ed and disappeared in the large group. I found Jude first, sitting on the ground staring at the sky that had turned a reddish colour. "Whoa."

"Yeah I know...like what the fuck?" Jude was spaced out before she registered me standing there. "Hey, where's Bandit?"

"Somewhere in there." I pointed in the last place I saw her. "We should go soon, before cops come or what not."

Nodding, Jude pulled herself to her feet and shook off the dirt. She heard Kay somewhere yelling at people to shut up and listen to her.

"OI! We should like...run around like zombies and scare the piss outta anyone walking by and shit!" Kay was hopping in excitement, holding a metal paintball gun I didn't notice she had on her. "Come on dudes! It's perfect! There are like...LOADS of us! It'll be fun!"

There was a murmur of baked agreement and a few heads nodding; mostly, everyone shrugged as if to say; "Ah, what the hell."

Within a moment or so, everyone rushed back up the trail after the four of us; everyone was moaning and groaning or growling. Some people dashed off after random people they saw, but stopped if they got too far away. It was more boring than I thought it would be, since I couldn't really hit anyone, and I didn't have a paintball gun like Kay did; she was shooting red paintballs at people. Suddenly, there was a scream that didn't sound like it was out of sheer surprise, but that of fear.

There was a really loud guttural noise as something leapt on a girl from one of my math classes in a black hoodie. At first, I thought it might've been some creep trying to rape her, but when she stopped moving and blood pooled everywhere around her, I knew differently.

"HOLY SHIT DUDE!" Bandit screamed, which caused the mass of people around us to scatter. There was a lot of screaming that took place after the first attack. Then came the gunshots. It was all too surreal. Just one fucked up surreal blur. A big horde of people somewhere off in the distance were moving at a slow pace at first, but when they saw our group of people, it immediately sped up and started bolting towards us. As they got closer, I could see the blood dripping from their mouths, the chunks of skin missing on their faces, the lifelessness in their movements. Paralyzed in fear or disbelief, I felt a tug on my arm.

"FUCKING ZOMBIES!" Jude bolted down the street and up a small trail that led to Frank's house. "C'MON DUDES! WE GOTTA GO!"

"Shit." I turned and sped after them, regretting that I had parked on the opposite side of the trail we emerged from and hearing the useless clinks of my keys that were attached to my bracelet. I closed my eyes as I tried to process what was happening.

Once we were at the back door of Franks, we knew it was too late. The sliding door was shattered and screams could be heard from inside. I saw my best friend in there; I told Zee I was going to be at Franks after I hung out with Jude and Bandit. It didn't feel real to be staring at her wide eyes as life left them while the zombies gnawed at her. Tears started to form then fell when I saw what I was really dreading; Jeremy emerged from the broken slide door, covered in blood and making low noises with a wild look in his eyes. Once the eye contact was made, all I could do was run.

"FUCK! FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, seeing that Jude, Bandit and Kay were long gone. When the visible zombies were preoccupied with some people, I turned in confused circles, searching the scene for any of the girls. I spotted Bandit swinging an axe and chopping off limbs, while screaming at the top of her lungs a vast amount of obscenities. Jude was whacking zombies out of her way with a baseball bat she'd found somewhere, and Kay was holding a handgun she acquired after watching someone get overwhelmed by the hordes that just kept appearing. "COME ON! LET'S GO!"

Hearing my voice, the three girls made their way by chopping and shoving the dead-ish people aside. A crow bar was thrown and I caught it with mild confusion. I saw the smirking face of Kay who was clearly half enjoying herself. "Kill all sunsa bitches."

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We hid behind a dumpster, just out of sight of everything and tried to come up with a sensible plan.

"Where the fuck do we go? What the fuck do we do?" My voice came out surprisingly calm, which seemed to calm the others down a little.

"Fuck man, I don't know." Jude choked out, taking a deep breath she spoke more calmly, "Wait...school's a week away...maybe there'll be a janitor or something cleaning and shit at a school!"

"DUDE! That's brilliant...but which one?" Kay pondered, she was baked, and half happy that zombies actually existed.

"How about Pineridge? It's pretty clo-" I was cut off as I felt a gooey constrictor wrap around my throat and arms. I could barely choke out my next words as I felt my weight get pulled backwards. "GET- THE- TONGUE! SHIIT!"

"FUCK!" Bandit ran over with her axe with a frantic look in her eyes and slashed at the tongue of what could only be described as a 'smoker'. Gasping for air, I fell to my knees and looked up.

"Now, let's go NOW!" I stood up as I regained some composure and grabbed the crowbar from where it had dropped.

As we passed hordes of zombies that were invading homes and sending people running about, we tried to yell to them to follow along, but each person we caught the attention of got jumped by either a 'hunter' or a 'jockey', or a mix of some sort of attack. After seeing so much blood in the past forty minutes, it didn't faze me as much when I took a katana that had been sharpened by the dead dude who was half holding it; he must've used it as a makeshift weapon; it was a decoration but, now that it was sharp, it felt more comforting than a crowbar.

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The school was in sight, but no zombies were. It felt too good to be true, and proved so when a loud screechy growl was present and I felt myself fall flat on my face and warm sharp pains shooting through my back as I kicked to try get a presumable Hunter off of me. I heard muffled yells and screams as my hearing was starting to drown out. Suddenly it stopped and I found myself surprised to be on my feet again, and not some ghost or some shit staring at my own dead body. Though, the shit was beaten right out of me and I was bleeding from each limb of my body and I was dizzy from that much blood loss, I was still alive.

A couple of gunshots from Kay's gun fired to clear the last few zombies from the doorway and we ran as fast as we could towards the door. There was an old man in there, looking surprised that we were banging on the door. He quickly unlocked whatever locks he just locked and let us fall inside, closing the door behind us.

"What in the hell?" the man tilted his head and lifted us up one by one. "The library, it's barricaded."

I nodded, knowing the school from way back in grade two I found it quite easily. It looked a lot different from when I was six however; a metal door with bars on the window, and once inside the library, there was metal sheets where windows should've been and couches that were probably from the teachers' lounge, and mats from the Gym. There were also people.

"Aw hell, Ro, hand me them first-aid kits there; they's bin beat up pree' bad." We all knew it was Ellis, but not a one of us could speak for the umpteenth time that hour. Right in shitty little Prince Rupert, Canada were the four survivors from our favourite game ever.

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**A/N: I don't know how well I did for the first chapter, but reviewing might be nice. :3**


	2. A Real Live Safe Room

**A/N: Okay, okay. I get that the first chapter was boring, but pretty please, if you're reading this, can you let me know you've read it? :D**

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**Chapter Two: A Real Live Safe Room**

Ellis went to work almost immediately on me; probably because I was bleeding on everything. Rochelle and Nick followed suit, but Coach was busying himself with a sandwich to really notice there were new faces in the library. After smiles of thanks, and a few deep breaths, we went to sit down on the inviting couches. Still feeling dizzy, the world around me went black as I slowly let myself lay on the couch.

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"So is she okay?"

I could hear mumbling around me. I didn't know how long I was out for.

"She ain't dead, right?"

"No dummy, she's breathing." I could hear Nick's sarcasm, which made me smile slightly. I stopped when I realized they could see my smile. I slowly sat up and let the world fall into place around me, feeling groggy and wanting nothing more than clean clothes, and to go home. At that moment, both choices weren't possible. It was still dark out; that or I was out for a day.

"Why hello, hello!" Ellis' voice perked up a little; I looked around for the other three I arrived with. I didn't see them, and Ellis seemed to know what I was going to ask as I cleared my parched throat. "Your little friend's jus' went to the kitchen to get something to snack on."

I nodded and sat in quiet for awhile. Then I heard giggling as the three girls filed in the library. I also heard grumblings and moaning from the outside. Letting a small shiver creep up my aching back, I smiled at Bandit who looked happy that I was finally up.

"Yay! You're up!" Bandit smiled in relief; she was afraid that I could've turned into a zombie or something...she didn't have to say anything, but I just knew it.

"So, how's about we get to know each other? My name is Ellis, some people call me Elle. But I really prefer Ellis 'cause Elle kinda sounds like a girl's name. But if you prefer to call me Elle, I guess you can." Ellis grinned slightly and looked at the other guys, "Well? Names people, I know you got 'em."

"Folks call me Coach." Coach smiled gently over at us.

"I'm Rochelle, but you can call me Ro if you feel like it." Rochelle smiled and gave a kind nod, "How're you feeling? You've been out for a couple of hours now."

"I'm okay..." We all turned to Nick; it felt odd knowing someone's name and having to be introduced to them anyways, in fear of starting up an awkward situation of knowing their names before being introduced.

"Name's Nick." He gave a bored nod in our general direction, "What's with the dresses? You look like kids trying on mommy's clothes."

"What's with the suit?" I shot back with an equal annoyance in my voice. "You look like Colonel Sanders."

"Ooh..." Nick put on a mock face of hurt or something, giving a small grin that he probably didn't want us to see; he stopped the moment I smirked back slightly and turned his head away.

"I'm Bandit, and that's Kay, Jude and Rikki!" Bandit spouted happily, feeling special that she was the one to introduce us to new people for once. "Hey, where'd that Janitor dude go?"

"He probably went to the teacher's lounge or something." Rochelle answered. "He doesn't like people, but he let us in because he didn't want it on his conscience, at least, that's what he said..."

"Oh...how kind of him..." I was trying to be talkative, but I was thirsty on top of my other two desires for clean clothes and more sleep. "Well, where did you guys come from? I don't recognize you from around here."

"Oh! Well, we's from Georgia...well Coach 'n' me are. Ro 'n' Nick; they's just got stranded." Ellis recalled with a sense of pride, like it was a big deal he remembered where his friends came from. Nick rolled his eyes and started to polish the pistol he had in his hand.

"Boy howdy, I sure was!" Nick spoke in a sarcastic hick accent, his eyes fixated on the now shiny pistol.

"And then we was all killing zombies trying to get to an evac station. Well, we finally found one outside'a N'awlins...they took us all over the place and shit...hell sometimes we didn' know where we was!" Ellis' face had taken on a more serious look, "they was sayin' _all_ sorts of bullshit about the flu not being places. All of it was bull, them damned zombies er' everywhere! Canada! That's what that last pilot said. Canada was clear of it. So we came up by Vancouver. Ho-lee shit! God I _hate_ Canada!"

"Hey...Canada's not all bad. Where'd it all start? Hmm...In the _U.S.A_?" Kay gave a small frown at Ellis, who just shook his head tiredly.

"Yeah, yeah...that ain't fair...I guess." Ellis grumbled slightly. "I'm jus tired of seeing zombies everywhere, I guess."

"So...here we are, in Canada! This doesn't seem like it'll ever end! Man, I almost had a good paying job! Argh!" Rochelle looked up; she had her head on her knees up until that point.

"Well, how come we never heard about this?" I was really confused; but then it started to feel like I knew something was up all day by then.

"Whaddya mean? It's all over the news n' shit...well whatever stations are still broadcasting." Coach was now snacking on an Aero bar. The news report my mom spoke over flashed in my mind.

"I thought the boarder was on lockdown or something." There was a hole somewhere in that story; I remembered the news report talking about that. "How'd you get by that?"

"Lockdown my ass," Nick spoke up, "nothing but zombies that way now, if it's way up here too."

"Well, those things out there, are they dead or what?" my voice gave an unintentional quiver; of fear I suppose.

"Well, if they weren't so decomposed and growly, I'd say they be perfectly fine folk, yes ma'am." Nick gave a lazy nod with his perpetual sarcasm seeping through.

"Why, thanks Nick, for that bit of information. Well hell, why don't we jus let 'em all in then? More the merrier and shit, yeah?" I could play that sarcasm game too. Ellis just sat in plain confusion; I guess he was wondering why everyone had taken to mocking his accent.

"Whatever..." Nick just sat back and rotated his head to crack his neck. I turned to everyone else to get an answer.

"Well, they're kind of dead, I suppose." Rochelle put in. "They're supposedly sick. I don't know what to make of it really. TV calls it the Green Flu. Whatever anti-government people remain call the sick ones government propaganda. Everyone else, that's alive, calls them zombies."

"But, how did it start?" Jude spoke up for the first time, fear was quite eminent in her voice.

"How the hell should we know?" Nick rolled his eyes towards Jude, who cringed her nose slightly at Nick. Jude had no likings for people who were douche-bags without a cause.

"Well, the TV stations up here have symptoms for it." Coach started, "Flu-like symptoms, unusual behaviour that includes mild hysteria and/or personality change..._all_ that 'ficial crap."

Holy shit, I was freaking out by then. Not a week earlier, my mom and dad had some sort of flu; they figured it was something they ate. After that, well, let's just say my parents had been freaking Bandit and me out a LOT. Sneaking around the house in paranoia, the abrupt 'I don't give a shit' attitudes, straight to being an obnoxious wannabe rich person; a little odd for two people to start acting out life as if it were some really annoying chore to get over and done with when the week before they were care-free and happy with the kids they ended up with.

"Unless you're immune or what not. You don't get sick, but shit; you hafta deal with this whole apocalypse shit." Ellis sighed tiredly, "It've bin easier to jus be a zombie. I mean, I don't actually _mean_ that, it's just...it gets real boring, y'know? Hell, I didn't think we'd _ever_ find another normal person anywhere after N'awlins! Then there was the pilot that turned zombie that crashed us on that mountain over there, the camp of people that got ambushed, that mall of yours that _had_ and evac that was crawling with witches...hell...there's just freakin' zombies _every_where. I'm glad we're here though... five normal people since Vancouver...that makes nine of us. Man oh man..."

"So, now what?" I was feeling quite light headed, partly from recovering from injuries, and partly due to the overwhelming fact that there was no real hope for much. I took a glance at Bandit, who seemed to be cluing in on the case of our parents, who were probably running around trying to eat people in their fancy clothes. Her face was struck with a look of sickening realization.

"Sleep, get up, kill zombies, stay alive." Nick sighed with a tone of uncertainness staining his normal sarcasm. "...the norm."

"What about help?" Kay spoke up, fear starting to finally kick in on her happy outlook for a zombie apocalypse.

"Well...guns help." Nick turned to answer Kay; he seemed to finally notice what she was dressed in and raised an eyebrow. "Oh god, the last thing we need is a female Ellis."

Kay just frowned at him and turned to Bandit to continue whatever conversation she was having with her.

"CEDA ain't nowhere to be seen, course. Not counting the zombiefied ens'." Ellis grimaced. That feeling seemed mutual. We were on our own, and we knew it.

"...on that happy note...I'm just going to go to sleep now." I stated, with a yawn that escaped before I realized I must've looked sarcastic. Rochelle nodded and turned onto her side as best she could on an armchair. Coach followed suit, snuggling into the largest chair there with a little pile of wrappings on the end table next to him. Nick sat there and gave a solemn nod to the rest of us before standing up and sitting next to the metal door that marked a safe room.

"I'll stand watch for a bit..." Nick spoke through a yawn; which made the rest of us look a little uncertain at each other.

I just turned to my side and let my mind wander a bit before actually sleeping. I watched blankly as Bandit and Kay started to talk a little nervously to Ellis; they always wanted to meet him even if he was fictional. That alone made me feel kind of awkward; if the Survivors were real, along with zombies and the extermination of hope altogether, what else was real that had yet to surface? Vampires? Well, I guess they were real to me first. Werewolves? Who cared. I shrugged out that whole idea and started to listen to my surroundings.

"...instead of evacuatin', I armored up a truck to drive myself out of there. Built that thing to be zombie-proof. Turns out it was only ninety-nine percent zombie-proof. The last one percent tore that truck to SHIT." Ellis spoke in an absent minded tone, chuckling slightly at whatever memory arose from his talking. "Oh, oh! I ever tell you about the time my buddy Keith tried camping out on top of a building once? Yeah, he was shooting crows, but the police were too busy tear gassin' him to ask what he was doin' up there. He screamed for an entire year every single time he opened his eyes! Oh man! At first it was funny...then it just got sad...but then it got funny again! Oh man! And then there was the time Keith made sushi. Yeah, his mom took him to a sushi place for his birthday and he didn't want to go, but turned out he LOVED it, man. But it's like ten bucks a su-sho in one of them places, so Keith figures; 'Hey, how hard can it be to roll up some raw food in seaweed, right?' As it turns out, it's hard. Now, they say that experience is the best teacher, and experience taught Keith that if you ever eat three pounds of raw chicken, it kills you. Now luckily, Keith's brain went into self-defence mode and started shutting organs down to head the chicken off at the pass, and the doctors were able to get 'em out before his heart stopped. But to this day, Keith has no sensation in his right foot, and doesn't recognize his own brother Paul no more...man...this is more fun than talkin' to _some_ people who cut me off after half a sentence."

"Hey, Ellis..." I had a question that started burning after hearing Ellis' stories of his friend Keith, "This Keith guy...how is he still alive?"

"Whaddya mean?" Ellis tilted his head slightly, "Well, he_ was_ one of the first ones on them whirly-birds."

"Whirly-birds...cool." I yawned again, knowing I wasn't going to get a better answer than that. "Well, I'm just gonna go to sleep now, night everyone."

With that, everyone mumbled a good-night and I let the world dissipate from my vision. After maybe a couple of hours, I awoke to a couple of yells.

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**A/N: So this is feeling pretty good so far. I'm having fun trying to get characteristically accurate with the Survivors...but I know I'm doing a crap job of that. Anyways, whatever readers I have, please please please review. Pretty please? With Ellis on top? XD **


	3. Plans

**A/N: So here's a new chapter, a lot longer than I expected it to be, but there was just so much I wanted to put in. Tell me how you like these apples! :D**

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**Chapter Three: Plans**

"THIS-THINGS-GOT-ME!" Nick's strangled call came through the grogginess that refused to lift right away. I saw Rochelle hop up, as if she hadn't been asleep at all, and cut Nick free from the Smoker's grasp. "Man I hate those things...Thanks Ro...Guess I fell asleep..."

"Nick, thanks for trying...you can go to sleep if you'd like." Rochelle offered politely, the kind of polite that occurs when you feel obligated to be polite...rather because you want to. Rochelle gave a small, suppressed yawn. Nick gave a small nod as he flopped on the armchair Rochelle had been snoozing on.

"Hey, Ro...I can stand watch...You look tired." I offered, since I had a good few hours of sleep.

"If you really want to..." Ro yawned once more, "I guess I could use some more sleep...Thanks, kid."

"No problem." I sat on the chair beside the metal door and kept an eye on the bars. A machete was set neatly by my feet, which I picked up and fiddled with, wondering why it was so quiet. There was the occasional infected that stuck their arm in between the bars. I made some gross fun of slicing bits off of their arms, or trying different ways of stabbing them. Turns out, it took two or three punctures to successfully kill a common infected; one gunshot as long as you hit its legs, chest or head, and four really hard punches if you had the strength to do so. Out of boredom, I let the next infected prod at the still air that stank of decay. It's grey limb gave a small crack as its arm bent awkwardly down and gripped at the metal bar holding the door shut, at least until the infected pulled it out of place. I almost panicked, but remembered that the zombies didn't know how to use a doorknob, and the door was metal. After stabbing the zombie and peeking out, I noticed that something was wrong. How were these zombies getting inside? I opened the door, which didn't make a sound, to my relief. I felt a small breeze brush against my skin. I looked down at myself.

"Well, there goes the rest of the 80s." I sighed, noting how dirt and blood ridden my dress had become. I lifted the machete in a ready position. Feeling more secure, I wandered down some ways away from the door and noticed a window was missing. Finding the shrapnel scattered on the floor, I looked out cautiously to see a couple of zombies wandering aimlessly, or sitting and lying down, bored of doing zombie things. I looked around, trying to remember where the teacher's lounge was. There was another red safe room door near the end of the hall, but it was open and feet were sticking out of the doorway, surrounded by a thick pool of blood. "Hey, Mr Janitor-dude? You there?"

I knew nothing but silence would answer my call, but hey, can't say I didn't try. Gripping my machete and recalling what normally happened in all horror movies, I didn't go to check it out...that never ending anything well, but a life. I crept back into the safe room and replaced the bar, and looked at the sleeping group of people, scattered about the library. I was struck with the feeling that we were the only ones left, minus one.

... ... ...

Nick was fidgeting in his sleep; he made a small noise and sat up straight, looking around in confusion. He looked up at me, and not being the expert in comforting people after a nightmare, I waved. His expression was indiscernible as he flopped back on the armchair and put a hand on the side of his face as he looked at the ceiling. I tried to find something to say, but couldn't decide if I should even talk.

"...nightmares?" I spoke in an awkwardly soft tone, which made me clear my throat a little.

"Nightmares are for kids." Nick spoke flatly. I just shrugged; I knew he didn't want people to dig into him so much. Nick sat up again, gave a slight frown as he leaned back into the couch, as though he was never awake. Shrugging, I decided to poke Ellis awake, since I was getting sleepy watching everyone else sleep.

"Hey, Ellis." I prodded at his shoulder and smiled slightly at the sight of him frown in sleepy crankiness. "Elle! Oi, wakey wakey!"

"Where is it!" Ellis sat up, stood up, and aimed his handgun in various directions in a matter of seconds. I put my hand on the pointing gun and lowered it for Ellis, who was more awake by then.

"Ellis...it's just your turn to keep watch." I said calmly, as if soothing a little kid that had a nightmare.

"Oh...oh right. Sorry 'bout that." Ellis slapped his hat on and gave a small nod before sitting down on the chair by the door and giving a small yawn. "Man, I'm still tired...y'know what time it is?"

Glancing down at my wrists, I gave a small sigh of annoyance that I forgot my watch. I just shrugged and then remembered the Janitor before I flopped on the mat I just sat down on.

"Hey...the janitor guy...I think he's done for...I went out-" I started.

"You went out by yourself? Kiddo, we're all 'sleep...what if-" Ellis' eyes widened slightly, "Wait, he's dead? Damn..."

"Anyone know his name?" I asked, feeling kind of bad that not a single one of us tried to get him to stay in the library, I mean; he didn't _have_ to let me and my friends in too. Ellis shrugged with a saddened face and took his hat off, running one hand through his hair. "Well, I'm a get some sleep...just yell if you need any help."

"G'night, miss." Ellis smiled, putting his hat back on and getting more comfortable on the chair. I fell into an uncomfortable slumber; listening to the zombie's guttural noises weren't exactly the most relaxing thing to fall asleep to.

* * *

"We can't stay here forever,"

"I know, but I don't wanna go out there,"

"Jude, look, I know you're freaked by the whole apocalypse idea, but you don't really want to wait here to die, do you?"

"It seems easier than getting my fucking brains sucked out of my head like juice in a fucking juice box!"

I sat up and saw Jude and Bandit squabbling about leaving the safety of the library.

"Hey, dying like that shows you tried to survive...'stead of pussing and waiting for death." I interjected tiredly.

"Agreed." A semi-unison answer came from around me.

"So, what's up?" I asked in general.

"The janitor's dead, we're out of food, and that thing," Rochelle pointed down at a witch's body that lay limp in the middle of the room, "got in somehow. It's not safe to stay another night, let alone another week like this kid wants."

"Well, Jude, you heard the nice lady. We're going." I hopped up off the mat that gave me a sore back and picked up the machete I had claimed the night before. I wondered just how I had slept through the alleged witch attack. Jude gave me a look of defeat.

"Dude...don't do this..." Jude gave in by picking up her baseball bat.

"Is that all you guys brought? No guns or anything?" Ellis questioned, answered by shaking heads, besides Kay. He gave a sly grin, "Oh...right...we're in _Canada_..."

"Well s_oh-ree,_ Canada don't sell guns at e'ry corner store, no siree!" Bandit answered, having fun with a southerner accent.

"I got one, but...no more ammo, just a cricket bat I found." Kay held up her bloodied bat and empty gun.

"Ammo's right there, we need a plan y'all..." Ellis looked around the library at the remaining faces. "Y'know this place better than us...well, wherever we are."

"Prince Rupert...shitville, whatever...hey, where should we go for now?" Bandit was ready as she'd ever be, but we needed a plan.

"Well...we could always go to Roosevelt...big library with no windows, steel outside walls." I decided our best bet would be schools, since they shouldn't have had people in there.

"Dude, that's good actually...which way's quicker?" Kay was practically hopping to-and-fro with her pistol and cricket bat in each hand.

"Well, down the street is pretty obvious...maybe...there will be an evac by the hospital...since there's a helicopter landing place." I pointed out.

"...And if there isn't?" Nick put in, with his permanent scorn in tune. Rolling my eyes I answered.

"How about we have a good outlook, Nick." I replied; getting annoyed that Nick was always annoyed.

"Whatever..." Nick remained passive, "you guys lead the way."

"Okay, well, anything we need here?" Bandit asked, surveying her surroundings, and picking up a red pack with a cross on it. "Med-kits help, hey?"

"Yeah...take all the ammo you kin get." Ellis spoke in a half-businesslike manner, "Oh, don't ferget these babies here...pipe bombs...real handy little 'splosives."

"What. Is. That." Jude looked grossed out as she pointed at a jar on the librarian's desk, filled with green slime that probably didn't smell any better than it looked.

"Boomer bile." Rochelle explained grimly, "Boomers are these fat guys that run around puking on shit, their bile attracts hordes to attack whatever's covered in it."

"EW, why the fuck do we have that here then?" Jude was even more grossed out, picking up the jar and getting ready to throw it somewhere.

"Don't!" Coach piped up for the first time since the night before, causing Jude to freeze. "You don't get it? If we throw that while a horde's comin' t'wards us, they chase that 'stead of us."

"Oh! I get it now." Jude quickly put the bile back on the floor, frowning at it one last time, "C'mon guys...I'm as ready as I'll ever be..."

"We need ta find somethin' to eat, I'm gettin' hungry." Coach spoke in a calm voice, like he was used of these zombies by then.

* * *

Opening the door, our group kept their guns or melee weapons out and ready. What surprised us was the pretty dead silence; there weren't any zombies in sight, which got Jude's hopes up for awhile.

"Hey, this isn't as bad as I thought'd be." Jude sighed in semi-relief.

"Knock on wood." Bandit grinned at her friend. "This way, lil' Spanish girl."

"Fuck you, too." Jude grinned back, cursing at the dress comment. Passing through the empty street never felt creepier, just knowing there could be a little more than one undead fucker lurking around. The sun was out and bright, which was a relief from the night's chill without a blanket. "H-hey...anyone else hear that?"

Crying. What a great way to start the day.

"Oh for the love of God..." Rochelle spoke quietly and looked around for where the crying was coming from, since the crying was echoing off of the concrete walls of the nearby buildings. "If you see the scrawny pink chick with no clothes on and long talons, let me know and for God's sake, don't shoot it!"

"Why?" Jude was never much of a Left 4 Dead fan and didn't know much about the infected or special infected. She watched it being played, tripped herself out by trying to believe a zombie apocalypse was happening, and then ran away to the safety of her room and watched stupid things on YouTube.

"'Cause she'll tear the shit outta ya, if you're not careful." Ellis warned while pointing at the staircase by the hospital. There was the little scrawny thing that was pink and had long black talons. "Witch, witch, witch!"

"Well there's always the road...around...the hospital..._Never _mind." I sighed, seeing the giant pile of bodies both of humans and zombies alike, and cars. Like a big barricade that just didn't look safe climbing over. "Kill the witch, I guess."

"Oh man...her crying attracted some friends." Kay sighed, releasing a stream of bullets from her little handgun, aimed randomly in the horde that was now charging at us.

"See! I told you this was a bad idea!" Jude was half in tears, "DUDE, fuck! That's my drama teacher!"

"I see he taught you well, you drama queen." I joked blandly as I swung my machete, feeling the cold, gooey blood spray everywhere. There was the distinctive growling of the witch of someone getting too close.

"Not the time, Rikki!" Jude yelled over the horde that separated the group.

"SHIT, I think I really pissed her off!" Kay screamed, running and swinging at the common infected as she cleared the way to get away. I felt a sharp pain that stunned my movement as the witch passed. I regained some composure to keep killing zombies. I heard her scream, or maybe it was both Kay and the Witch. "FUCK SHE'S PISSED OFF, GET HER AWAY! KILL HER!"

Everyone else was preoccupied with the massive horde that made it hard to see where we were standing. Nonetheless, I made a try to where Kay's voice was screaming from, slicing and stabbing zombies as I went. I saw Kay lying in a collecting pool of blood, but she wasn't dead. Stunned by the sight, I didn't think as I jumped on the witch.

"LEAVE HER ALONE, YOU BITCH!" I drove my machete through the shoulder blades of the witch, dismissing the threat of her talons. She fell forward, my knees collided with the cement hard, but overrun with adrenaline I continued my witch hunt. I dropped my machete when we fell, so I improvised by grabbing two fistfuls of greasy, cold hair and started smashing the witch's head as hard as I could into the cement. It seemed to be working until she kicked me off of her. More angry than I was hurt, I hopped back up and took my fallen machete and drove it through her open mouth, silencing her annoyingly piercing cries. I turned to see Kay leaning on Bandit for support, along with the rest of the group staring at me with wide eyes. Panting, I put my hands on my knees, and gave one last kick at the witch's body as I withdrew the machete from her head. "...what? She was killing Kay...had to do something..."

"Thanks buddy." Kay smiled gratefully at me as Bandit wrapped temporary bandages around her stomach and arms. The rest of the group just shook their heads, as if to dispel their disbelief of how I took on the witch. I didn't think I could do that, but made a mental note to have everyone kill the next one. That took a lot out of me. As if on cue, just like the game play a very audible gurgling could be heard as a fat figure disappeared from sight from the top of the stairs. Bandit just smiled and ran up the stairs with surprising speed.

"C'mon guys, hurry up!" Bandit's voice seemed to be fading, when we reached the top of the stairs we could see Bandit climbing up the side of a dumpster, steadied above a boomer.

"Bandit, don't!" I yelled as I tried to run over to help, hoping the ones with guns would take it out before anything dumb happened. Knocking on wood wouldn't have helped anyways. Bandit hopped on the boomers shoulders and started laughing maniacally as it ran wildly through a horde of zombies that seemed to appear from nowhere. She pulled at the boomer's ears, which seemed to cause him to puke on the zombies ahead of it. I couldn't help but laugh; neither could the others as we ran to clear the horde that was attacking each other. The smell was horrid, almost beyond description, as the group swung and shot at random, clearing the way. Bandit continued pulling at the massive bile spewing monster's ears, leading the hordes that accumulated around us in other ways.

BOOM!

"Holy shit! SORRY BANDIT!" Ellis yelled, but Bandit wasn't there, she was going up fast. Maybe by the second or third level of the hospital, she started falling fast too. "SHIT!"

"WHOA!" Bandit screamed, I couldn't tell if it was from fear or excitement.

All of us were scrambling around, trying to line up with Bandit's descent, when she flattened out Nick. Nick's face was sideways on the ground from Bandit's weight that was on his back. She looked down, as if she was wondering if she broke his back or something.

"Hey, thanks Mr. Sanders!" Bandit proclaimed happily, hopping off of the man's back; who groaned in both annoyance and pain.

"I hate kids." Nick spat as he stood up with a flinch from the pain of cracking his back into place.

"Are you ok, Bandit?" Coach asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. Bandit just nodded with a huge smile.

"Are you kidding? That was the most fun I've had all week!" Bandit proclaimed excitedly, "Hey! I hear a helicopter! It's up there!"

The group looked up at the cliff above the hospital, where the whirring of the blades could be heard. The quickest way up, it seemed, was to climb up the ladder on the side of the building on the second floor, and hop onto the cliff from the fifth floor of the building. It wasn't smart, or safe, but it beat hoping there'd be another helicopter if we missed that one.

"Up the ladder we go!" Ellis declared with a note of excitement.

... ... ...

On our way to the ladder there was a horde that evacuated the building at a frightening speed. Among them were zombies in long white coats with stethoscopes hanging around their necks and scalpels in hand. A spitter could be heard as we entered the first landing of the hospital. Suddenly, there was a burning hot feeling rising up from my legs as I heard my teammates cry out in surprise.

"OW! That thing spits burning shit!" Jude announced in sheer fright as she hopped back and forth trying to avoid the green goo surrounding us. Rochelle fell first.

"Hey! Better not leave me here! I need a little help, guys!" Rochelle cried out as she lay in the dissipating goo. Nick ran over to help her up after shooting and killing the spitter in one shot.

"Now is _not_ the time to be lying around, Ro!" Nick yelled over the screeching of the hordes flowing in from every direction, as he pulled the woman in pink to her feet.

Reeling the corner, I held my machete with my right hand, and a pipe I found sticking out of a doctor in my left, I started swinging at random and clearing a sort of path for the teammates scurrying around behind me. Then there was a split second of pain as I felt my weight thrown against the wall, as if I were nothing. Clearing the fuzz from my head hitting the wall, a giant orangey-red thing gave an ear-deafening roar as it picked up a chunk of cement and chucked it with no effort towards me and the group that caught up with me.

"TANK! Shoot the Tank!" Ellis yelled and shot simultaneously. I stood up and ran behind the behemoth, stabbing and slashing as hard as I could. Admittedly, that was not the smartest thing since the witch ordeal. It reached back and smacked me; but instead of the anticipated wall, I felt a sharp pain of hitting something and flying backwards again. Small slivers of glass could be felt as they slid into my arms and back. "Hey! Someone get her!"

I felt a warm hand wrap around my arm and pull me up.

"I can't believe you Canadians, here." An AK-47 was shoved into my hands as I stared at it for a few minutes, having never touched a real gun. I looked up to see the stern face of Nick. Nick's voice was gruff, and he held his arm to his side limply.

"Thanks" I found that the gun was loaded and started shooting at, mostly hoping I was, the Tank that was charging at Ellis and Kay. "Do guns even hurt that thing?"

Eventually, the tank succumbed to the barrage of bullets and flopped onto its face in a bloodied mess. Staring at the giant's body made me feel less safe while clutching the AK-47 to my chest. A door was opened at the end of the hallway. Kay hopped through it.

"Hey, the ladder's here!" Kay was excitedly pointing at the wall just outside of the door. We ran onto the roof of the first floor wing, panting and recuperating from the tank. I felt something cool pour onto my shoulder, which stung a lot. I turned to see Ellis' smiling face, and holding up a med-kit.

"Just hold still, I'm a fix you up, m'kay miss?" Ellis' fingers were surprisingly gentle on the wounds that accumulated on my shoulder, the only part that hurt was getting the glass out. Nick and Ro were helping Kay and Jude out with their wounds.

"You guys! C'mon!" Jude was climbing up the ladder with a surprising speed. I guess she really wanted out of the town. We all followed her up, until there was a loud unearthly growl of a Smoker. Suddenly, my grip with the ladder was lost as I scrambled to stay on the ladder, with futile results.

"Smoker's got Rikki!" Nick hollered after I was already dangling from the cliff by the hospitals third floor, in the smokers grasp. "Shit...this is gonna hurt!"

"Don't you dare-" I yelled as best as I could, struggling to keep air flowing into my lungs. There was a loud popping sound as the tongues grip loosened and my stomach did a flip as the ground was coming closer. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would at first. There was a burning feeling in my left arm before I drifted off into unconsciousness. Then there was yelling, and more yelling. I came to within a couple of minutes, and raised my head to see the last glimpse of the helicopter, which decided to leave. I flipped onto my back and stared at the bright, empty blue sky above me. "Shit."

I heard footsteps approaching me. There was the group; Bandit with an axe she found, Kay with two pistols, Jude with a baseball bat, and Nick, Rochelle and Ellis; all were covered in blood and whatever else those zombies had in them. I didn't see Coach until I felt my body get lifted and thrown over a pair of sturdy shoulders.

"Okay, Ellis..._now_ she might be dead." Nick's voice could be picked out of what little consciousness I had left. Then there was a flurry of voices, probably the group getting mad at Nick for his dry jokes. I hurt all over, mostly my left shoulder blade, but I felt okay enough to walk, though I didn't know where we were.

"Hey, Coach? You can let me down now." I spoke through a dry mouth. I looked around to see the woods surrounding the group. It would've been a peaceful day to just sit on a nearby stump, just listening to the silence. But now, it was creepy and everyone seemed to think so. "I think that was a heinous failure...my shoulder hurts but I can walk."

"You okay, Rikki?" I nodded at Coach, who gave a disdainful look at Nick as he put me down, who just gave a small lopsided grin of annoyance. "Say you're sorry, Nick. You coulda killed her."

"H-oh my _god_...I'm sorry I almost killed you...there, feel better?" Nick rolled his eyes and started walking through the tree-ridden landscape, then stopped and looked around. "I don't know where the fuck I'm going...Why is there so many goddamned _trees_?"

"It's just a patch of them...not really a forest. We can walk straight...should take us to the parking lot of Roosevelt." I pointed straight, hoping I was right. Everyone nodded and started weaving their way through to the parking lot. Just as I expected, there sat a very vacant looking Roosevelt Elementary School.

There was a loud growl as the group was alerted of a nearby hunter. Then the cry of it pouncing. One gunshot could be heard off in the distance, as the hunter that had almost got Bandit fell in its tracks.

"Jesus Christ!" Bandit's eyes widened at the hunter's body that lay limp at her feet. "Where'd that come from? The gunshot, I mean."

We looked around and saw two small figures on the roof of the library; one was holding what looked like a hunter's rifle or something with a scope. They waved at us to come towards them.

"See, told ya there'd be someone there." Bandit smiled widely as she made a run for it towards the door of the school, with the rest of us following close behind.

* * *

**A/N: So this is probably one of my longest chapters I've ever written, so yay me! :D **

**It'll be 'yay you' if you review! :3**


	4. New Day

**A/N: So yeah...I hope this is a good story so far...but it's hard for me to decide if there aren't many reviews to read! D: PLEASE REVIEW!**

* * *

**Chapter Four: New Day**

"I told you they weren't infected," One said to the other as they peered through a tiny rectangular window on the safe room door to the library.

"I didn't say they were, you moron."

"Hey, if I was a moron, you wouldn't be here."

"Oh, man...don't start with that again. Just because you-"

"Should we go get them?" the first guy interrupted his friend.

"They've got legs, they can get here their own damn selves, 'sides...someone's gotta open the door, right?"

* * *

"C'mon! Look, there's the door! Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Ellis hollered over at everyone running behind him. An audible howling could be heard as a horde started to emerge from the shadows of the trees. After we filed into the school, we made a dash for the library. The door slammed on the arm of a common infected, creating a sickening crunch.

"Ah...ha...hello there." A guy that was rather tall and had shaggy light brown hair, wearing thick framed black glasses and a white t-shirt that read 'The Doors' and black jeans stuttered to try introducing himself, pushing his glasses up half the time he was talking. "My name is Leopold Thorton, well actually its Leopold _J_ Thorton, but no time to get into minute details..."

"Leo, do you always have to be such a dork? I mean, it's a zombie apocalypse, man! How often do you get to do that without being a dork?" the guy with dirty blond hair and green eyes scorned at his friend. He was tall too, with a backwards black cap that had an 'AC/DC' logo on it, a dark red t-shirt with the 'DC' logo and light blue jeans. "I'm Jason...you guys from around here?"

"No sir...well, I mean, these ladies are and all, but not us." Ellis smiled cautiously at Jason, differentiating the group from one another. Maybe I read into how long he stared at Jason and Leo, but maybe it was because they were so much taller than he was, even Coach was a couple of inches shorter than the two. "Oh, I'm Ellis, by the way..."

"I'm Jude..." Jude was transfixed on Leo, who gave a small blush before returning to type away at a small laptop he had on his lap. She walked over to one of the many couches placed in the huge library. Bandit followed and sat beside her. "Is this place safe?"

"No windows, thick steel walls...I'm pretty sure we're good here." Jason nodded, and then turned to Bandit. "Oh right, you're welcome for killing that hunter from, like...a hundred fifty feet!"

"Yeah, it was a pretty good shot." Bandit smiled at Jason. "I'm Bandit, and that's my sister Rikki, that derp dressed like Ellis is Kay, and that one in pink is Rochelle, and the Colonel Sanders runner-up is Nick. Oh! And the big guy is Coach."

The two guys looked at the rest of us and gave a nod as each was introduced.

I wandered off to find the bathroom, which was conveniently connected to the Gym locker room, and the thought of a shower was enticing. Turning the knob to a lukewarm temperature, I smiled at the fact that the water was still running. There was a closet that had fluffy white towels, so I slipped out of my dress and into a shower stall. I held the dress under the water, trying to scrape off the crusted blood and bile residue. Once happy with the cleanliness, I took my shower. I found the school's sports uniforms in the same closet and slipped into a uniform while I waited for my dress to dry. After an hour of washing my dress, showering and then drinking from the tap, I went back into the library.

* * *

Ellis was playing poker with Nick, Coach, and Jason. Kay, Ro and Leo were trying to set up the new flat screen the school must have bought for the new school year. Bandit and Jude were smoking a joint on a couch. I went to sit down by the poker game, Texas Hold 'Em, and observed each distinguished poker face analyze their odds. Jason and Coach threw their cards down, folding their hands, and sat back to watch the southerner and gambler.

"I'm all in." Nick didn't give anything away in his stare while pushing his chips forward.

"I'll call...heheh..." Ellis, who now was wiggling a joint in his mouth as he spoke, was quick to call; flipping his ace and two of spades over to complete his straight of ace, two, three, four, and five. "Straight. Haha, Nick."

"Oh, don't be so sure kiddo." Nick flipped his cards over nonchalantly. He had six and seven of hearts, which knocked Ellis out of the game since the three, four and five cards were hearts as well. "Straight flush, too bad Elle."

"Aww, dang it I'm not playin' no more!" Ellis stuck his bottom lip out and stood up. He looked at me with a small grin. "I didn't stand a chance 'gainst Mr. Gambler man here. See, I had a straight, but he had a straight _flush_ which was better an'-"

"I know- My dad taught me poker; he crushed you." I sighed with a small smile at Ellis. With those words, I realized that my parents were really gone. Ellis' smile deflated a little, maybe from being rudely interrupted or a somewhat grasp on how I meant it, or a combination of the two.

"Oh, I'm sorry Rikki...did your folks, um..." Ellis shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"Yeah, they're dead, or kind of dead. I don't know." I gave another small sigh and smiled, I wasn't about to fall apart in front of strangers. Ellis held a slightly sad look, but it disappeared as he turned to the other guys who looked bored of poker already, since Nick had all the chips.

"We need a new game, y'all...any ideas?" Ellis sat back down with the three guys. They just shrugged at each other sighed. Ellis began shuffling the cards and dealt them, but seven to each person. They looked confused at first until Ellis spoke again. "Hey Coach, you got any three's?"

"Oh...um...Go Fish?" Coach smirked with a chuckle, when Ellis made a small face as he picked up a card. I smiled in amusement, but wanted to go see if watching TV was a possibility yet.

"Rawr..." I was bored and tired from running all day since dawn, and my scratches and cuts stung lightly as some reopened from my shower. I don't think I bled all too much, it just stung a little. Kay turned to me, with an annoyed look on her face as she threw the cables she was fiddling with aside, taking a deep breath to try redo her mess up. Why she thought surround sound was necessary, I don't know.

"Where'd your pretty dress go, Rikki?" Kay gave a small frown at the uniform I was stuck in for awhile, covering up that she was fed up with the cables with small talk.

"I washed it in the shower, found some uniforms, now I'm just waiting for it to dry." I smiled at Kay, who stared down at her bloodied Bull Shifter's shirt and jeans for a few moments.

"I need a shower too; maybe I'll do that after we get this stupid surround sound and TV to work." Kay frowned at the cables that were all mixed up. I half laughed at her attempt, when the TV came on, she perked up a little. "Oh, there we go...wait...I can't hear it! Argh..."

"Dude, that's why it's not working, you got the cables all mixed up." I pointed at some wires that were in the wrong spots, and sure enough; after Kay put it in the right holes, the news came onto the speakers, amplifying the quiet show. "See? There you go kiddo."

"I _told_ you those cables weren't correct..." Leo pushed his glasses up as he gave a small, taunting smile. Kay just stuck out her tongue at the nerdy guy and went to sit on the couch in front of the TV, with a pout on her face. Jude and Bandit came over to watch too, as did the rest of the group.

"_- since we've received word that the Canadian boarders have been breached by reanimates near British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. No word has been received from Alberta or the Maritimes. We will be switching over to the Emergency Broadcast station, thank you for staying with us, this is Kathy Brooks."_

_... ... ..._

"What are reanimates?" Jude questioned, her eyes half opened.

"Zombies, I guess..." I replied as the EB came onto the screen.

...scrh...fzzz...beep

"_This is the Emergency Broadcast Network..." _A robotic man's voice flowed through until a real man appeared behind a desk, with the name Nigel Richmond underneath him.

"_There are evacuation sites placed in malls and recreational centres throughout the province. You will be taken to a secure location; there will be refuge in those locations. If you are in the lower mainland, that is the Vancouver area; all evacuation sites are cleared and blocked off. Reanimates are appearing at rapid pace. If you have any other means of transportation, due to immense traffic blockage, to an appointed evacuation site, via biking or walking, proceed to do so. If you are in the Williams Lake region, there are evacuation sites between Soda Creek and Pine Valley. Please make your way to an evacuation site provided it is safe to do so. If you are in the Northwestern region of British Columbia, there are evacuation sites in and around towns..."_

"Holy shit, this _is_ a goddamned zombie apocalypse, ain't it?" Kay sputtered out; she seemed frightened while she absorbed the information streaming from the TV. "Where the hell do we go?"

"I don't know..." I whispered, staring blankly at the TV. A different news report came on as I changed the channel. All of the channels were broadcasting a news station of some sort. I guess it was too much to ask for one normal TV show that didn't emanate the feeling of the end of the world. I saw a shelf behind the TV that looked like it held a variety of movies...probably only kid stuff, but it sounded better than the dismal news networks. "Well, at least there's a shelf of DVD's..."

"_It has been 29 hours since the first outbreak of the Green Flu in Vancouver, or as scientists in Canada has come to name it: Zontanous Nekrous Astheneia, or Living Dead Disease. No matter what you call it, you can count on the devastating effects that follow thereafter. The death toll since the zero hour has risen to 200,000 in British Columbia alone. The injured are reported to be in the millions. Though there are evacuation sites situated throughout the country, there are precautions one can follow until further notice. Do not attempt to leave your home if the area you are in is heavily congested, if there are reanimates on your way to an evacuation site, being...armed...can be...necessary. Looting and bootlegging will not be tolerated and will be handled swiftly and harshly. Hygiene has never been more urged than now. Symptoms of the Green Flu include flu-like symptoms from one to two days, personality change, paranoia and irrational behaviour, which eventually causes death to the victim. Reanimation occurs within 30 to 40...seconds...after death. Until we have more information, I'm afraid you'll either have to stay tuned or make your way to a designated evacuation site."_

... ... ...

"Well, great. Now all we need to do is the waiting bit, and everything will be right and dandy." Bandit sarcastically remarked, trying to shove her fear aside.

"How much food do we have here? 'Cause if there's running water, those movies and a TV, some books and cards...we should be fine in this giant, windowless library...granted there is enough food." Jude was eager to know if we had to leave our safe haven after its refuge ran out.

"Well, I don't know really." Jason gave a thoughtful look, "There are the vending machines on each floor with water, juice, pop, chips, granola and chocolate bars...then there's that canteen area that's locked. Maybe there are juice boxes and lunch meats in there. Well, it should be enough for roughly a month if we ration our servings...or something along those nerdy lines Leo said a couple of days ago."

"Hell, a month beats a night or two." Jude gave a small breath of relief, as Leo gave a small frown at Jason as he stopped typing momentarily. "Well people...what the hell do we do for a month?"

Everyone was silent and looked around at the library. It suddenly looked a little smaller, but maybe it was just me.

"Well, we have that big old gym...so long as nothing can get in there too." I pointed out as I remembered that the Gym locker room would probably lead to the Gym itself. Everyone looked at the doors to the bathrooms, and all at once, as if we were all five again, we all bolted towards the locker rooms and raced into the Gym. As I expected, there were no windows, the doors were steel and shut tight, and the doors to the gym that were inside were already modified to be a safe room. "Awesome."

* * *

"Aww man, the door to the equipment rooms locked." Bandit pouted, at which perked Ellis up because he ran to the locked door as fast as he could.

"Don't ya worry," Ellis grinned deviously, pointing his pistol at the lock on the door. "Aww-ha-man, I've always wanted to do this!"

The gunshot rebounded and struck Ellis' thigh, who screamed out in surprise and pain. Nick put his hand on his forehead. Bandit, Kay and Jude giggled. Everyone else just shook their head in embarrassment for Ellis.

"Ah-OW! Fuck man..." Ellis groaned in both embarrassment and pain with a hand on his thigh, while Coach wandered over to the locked door, gave one giant pull and broke the lock to open the door. "What in the hell? Man, you're one strong fella, Coach."

We stood there staring at the equipment room filled with all kinds of sports equipment, scooters, and mats for high jumping and what not. Looking at one another, we rushed into the small room and grabbed a bunch of things to play with.

"Hey Nick, I bet I'll beat you in soccer. Ain't nothin' to do with luck here, mister." Ellis laughed tauntingly as he weaved the ball around his feet as he looked at the rest of us. "Well, there's ten of us, I'll pick four and you get the rest of 'em, kay? Okay; Ro, Jay, Rikki, and...Andi."

"Ellis, that's not fair." Nick half pouted looking at his somewhat rag-tag team of Kay, Leo, Coach and Jude...or in his point of view two unfit dorks, a fat guy and a pot-head. We all just looked from what we were doing; which was picking out different sports equipment.

"Hey, who said you could call me 'Andi'?" Bandit looked surprised that someone had noticed her nickname in the middle of her first name.

"Well I told you I'd pick first, Nick." Ellis goaded with a smirk playing at his lips, "And then we can play hockey and then..."

"Whoa, hold your horses Elle, how about we just play soccer first?" Jason smiled at the southerner, kicking the soccer ball that rolled to his feet. "Do we have any shirts or something to show the teams?"

"Nah, we know who's who an' all." Ellis looked at each of us and nodded with a small grin, "Man it's been too damned long since I've had some good hearted fun; not that killing zombies and shit all day an' night ain't fun or anything."

The group got into positions after setting up the nets and kicked off, which didn't turn out too well as all of us clambered to retrieve the ball. Laughing and slipping around on the sleek surface of the newly waxed floor in socks and shoes with no grip, the ball was passed back and forth and kicked into the nets at each end. In the middle of it all, Nick stopped and looked at us.

"Hey...anyone keeping score?" He panted, watching us shrug while looking at one another. He scowled at our response.

"Let's just say we beat your team...I mean, look at 'em." Ellis pulled his hat backwards as he gestured at the team behind Nick who were all gasping for air by then, as if to add effect to their out of fit ways. Admittedly, it was tiresome to try keep up with Ellis, and it made me wonder how on earth we ran so much up until then. Maybe it was because we were literally running for our _lives_, not a score. "Ahh, I'm hungry...what do we got to eat? I'm starvin' man..."

"Chips, granola bars...hey...let's see if we can get in the canteen!" Jason smirked, looking at Coach, "Now that the big guy is here, we might actually get in there, instead of screwing up the lock due to the" Jason took on a mocking nerdy impression, "'precarious measures that were appropriated with the meticulous art of lock picking'."

"Aw, Jason, you remembered the big bad words, I'm impressed." Leo pushed his glasses up his nose; it was becoming his trademark for speaking out loud already. "Besides, I didn't think that the pick would snap at the crucial point of unlocking it..."

We vacated the Gym through the main door, rather the locker room way. Jason was right, Coach yanked at the door a few times and it eventually gave in to the force behind Coach. We scattered throughout the area, finding whatever was edible. The kitchen was gold. The fridge was filled with yogurts, basic vegetables and dips, juice boxes, lunch meats and bread. The freezer was stocked up as much as the fridge. Smiling at each other, Ellis unplugged the fridge.

"This is coming back to the library, that way we don't hafta leave the room alone." Ellis reasoned, "Look around for extra juice and shit. It'll be better to have everything accessible in the library or gym."

After our scavenge, the library had taken on a mini-make over; there was a fridge in one corner, there were many mats scattered on the floor and the little balconies that were situated on the walls of books that had ladders leading up to them. There were blankets on the mats, since we found the kindergarten room, or maybe it was like an attached preschool. Either way, we were set for comfort, movie watching, food and other means of entertainment.

... ... ...

At the end of our day, we sat in front of the TV as Bandit plopped in a movie. As she sat down, an orange background of the main menu highlighted the title of the movie as flickers of zombie faces interrupted the white noise of the menu.

"Dawn of the Dead? Dude, haven't you seen enough zombies?" Jason raised an eyebrow at Bandit, who just shrugged.

"I can't ever get enough of George .A. Ramero." Bandit was about to push play, when Rochelle put a hand on her shoulder.

"Bandit, can we please watch something else? I mean, aren't we supposed to be watching a movie to take our minds _off_ of what's going on outside?" Rochelle tried to reason with Bandit, who seemed to be understanding. "Why don't we watch a cartoon or something?"

"I guess...I'm watching it later then. And there ain't nothing you can do about it." Bandit pouted as she pulled the movie out of the DVD player and put something else in its place. "You guys better like Toy Story."

* * *

**A/N: I wasn't really sure how to end the chapter, but I **_**am**_** sure that I am happy with the results. If you're pleased as well, do review. :D (Pretty please?)**


	5. Enough for a Puff

**A/N: So I've decided this will be a shorter story than planned, but that doesn't mean the chapters will be short. Less than 20 chapters sounds shorter than how I had originally planned the length to be. But...without further a due, here is chapter five. Be polite; if you've read this far, you might as well review. There's got to be **_**something**_** you liked or disliked that you can tell me! :D

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**

**Chapter Five: Enough for a Puff **

"You guys... we're out of weed." Jude gave a look of both annoyance and fright. Almost everyone's head shot up, the feeling seemed mutual; omit the ever stoic Nick.

"Well shit." Ellis sighed taking off his hat. Rochelle just shrugged and went back to her book she was reading.

"This is a horrible morning." Bandit pouted with a silent tear edging at the brim of her eye. I couldn't tell if she meant it or not.

It had been one full week, or at least that's what I figured. The days were already smearing into one another. I was lost in thought when Jude made the announcement, but when I realised what she said, it clicked perfectly to what I was thinking about.

"Hey guys, Jeremy had his back pack full of weed. It's not that far from here; it's like, down the street and a hill." I sat up from my mat I was sprawled out on. "And better movies than one zombie movie and a billion little kid movies. Probably beer too, knowing that house."

"Hey as good as that sounds, kid, you're forgetting something." Nick stared at me with a toothpick wiggling from his mouth, "Say someone's already thought of that and there's nothing there; wouldn't that make your little escapade useless?"

"Say there's only us left, wouldn't that make it better than nothing? I mean, you can't say you _don't_ want a beer or two. And I'm not a kid, thanks." I tilted my head towards Nick, "I'm nineteen."

"Yeah, in _Canada_, we know how to have fun; so the legal age is lower here." Kay smirked, which caused Ellis to shoot her a frown.

"Hey...America's fun. Hell, it's _way_ better than this chunk o' empty land with boring people." Ellis defended his country with little success.

"Yeah, because seeing fat people everywhere and caging up animals like deer because it's in a yard sounds _sooo_ much more fun than here." Kay countered as Ellis just shook his head as the two began their normal bickering about which country was better.

"Oh my my, nineteen! Sorry sweetie, but that still makes you a kid." Nick gave a small smirk at me as he ignored the two bickering. "Anyways, lemme get this straight: You four are going to risk your lives for illicit drugs and alcohol you shouldn't be drinking anyways, with the knowledge you probably won't come back."

"Pretty much, yeah." Bandit shrugged. "Sounds dumb, but I want weed dude."

"And beer." I added with a nod.

"Well, whatever you do, don't go through the hospital again." Ellis warned as he handed the guns to Jude, Kay and Bandit. I looked around for the AK-47 I got there with. Nick was holding it, with a look of semi-contemplation.

"There's not a lot of rounds left in here, so I don't know how much use it'll be to you." Nick put the gun down at his feet and picked up a katana that he had been using before we got to Roosevelt. "Here...melee weapons with a long reach are your best bet if you don't want to be killed."

"Aww, how sweet, pedo-Nick's showing concern." Rochelle grinned deviously.

"I am not. I'm just giving some advice to the kids." Nick rolled his eyes at the woman in pink as she wandered off in a fit of giggles. "And seriously, I'm ready to shoot whoever started that 'pedo-Nick' shit."

"You did, Nick." Jude winked at him with a sly grin on her face.

"Oh my _god_, I compliment a sandwich and I'm automatically a pedophile? There's something seriously wrong with that logic." Nick huffed, staring down at the AK-47. He picked it up and chucked it at me. "I realized something, you'll probably find ammo or something...or it'll be a blunt object."

"He couldn't be more sincere, how cute!" Kay cackled as she wandered towards the doors. "Love ya pedo-Nick!"

"Oh shut _up_ already..." Nick scowled and lit a smoke, then took it out of his mouth and frowned at it while looking in his case. "Ah shit...my last one...hey, Rikki. Get some smokes, will ya?"

"Sure thing Nick, while I'm at it I'll run down to the bank and get all the money orders you'd need to purchase child-" I was cut off by a shoe flung at my face, so I flipped him the bird with the best 'fuck you' smile I could muster without laughing at how red Nick's face had turned.

"Fuck you, kid." Nick scowled even more at the four of us.

"Y'know you wanna, Nicky!" I blew a patronising air kiss in his direction. It was his turn to flip me the bird as I followed the other three girls that were at the door. Then Bandit scurried over to her mat and took of the pillow case. "He's so easy to pick at, and look at that face, you know he _loves_ it." That wasn't meant to be a joke, but everyone was chuckling at Nick's tomato red face as he gave one last scornful look at us and went to a table, walking with one shoe on and kicking it off with the force of annoyance behind it.

"We can take some pillow cases to keep stuff we might need." Bandit smiled at her idea as she rejoined us at the door and tucked a pillow case in the belt she found the day before, but then frowned after a few moments of staring at the lumpy sack hanging from her side. "Oh wait...that'll be heavy after awhile..."

"Whatever, we need to grab stuff, and we don't have pockets. We can just drop them and pick them up again..." Jude pointed out, and Bandit nodded smiling once again.

"So, are we ready?" I asked the other three, who nodded vigorously, making practice swings and aiming and reloading. "Okay, let's go. See you later, everyone...I hope."

* * *

We were outside for the first time in a week, but for some reason, I wasn't as excited as I thought I would be. There were groans from uninterested zombies watching us from a distance, as we made our way towards the walkway between two buildings of townhouses. Jude and Bandit were at a slight jog, leaving Kay and me to try keep up. The quiet always seemed to be broken by the piercing howl of a hunter. Clicking out the ammo, there was a good amount left, but I didn't have any to reload when I ran out. Sighing, I aimed carefully at the hunter sneaking behind a truck and shot once. I was half-surprised that I actually hit it and it fell over. I was more than sure that it was just luck.

A horde of zombies rushed around the corner of the building we needed to get to; so I put my gun at my side and took out the katana, readying myself for what would come. As the rotting bodies approached, there was a crackle of pistols and bones alike. The rancid smell stuck in my head, it seemed worse this time around. It was probably because the zombies were in the sun for a week, so why would the smell get any better? I heard maniacal laughing that I thought could've been Kay, but it was a jockey and it was closing in on its target. Then there was a scream as the back-humper hopped on Bandit.

"RAPE! RAPE!" Bandit frantically tried to shake off the jockey as it steered her away from the horde. "HELP!"

"Shit." I ran after as fast as I could and turned the corner, the noise of the horde died away as Jude and Kay followed swiftly behind me. The jockey could be heard near Frank's former house with Bandit's muffled cry for help. When we found her, she was ramming the jockey into the wall; the jolts of each slam made the jockey cry out, interrupting its perpetual cackling for a moment at a time. Jude closed her eyes after taking aim at the jockey and shot, seemingly hoping that she didn't hit Bandit in the process. The lifeless body of the jockey fell with a thump at Bandit's feet.

"Holy shit, thanks dude." Bandit shook the feeling off of her and picked her gun back up. "Hey, look at that, we're here."

"Do you think they're okay?" Ellis was skimming over the titles of the library on a sliding ladder; he was mostly just up there for the sliding bit though. "'Cause I was beginnin' to like 'em around an' all..."

"And _I'm_ the pedophile." Nick was flicking poker chips at a sleeping Coach, seeing how many he could land on the portly sized belly. "Seriously Ellis, they'll be okay. I think. So long as Bandit doesn't pull any stunts like last time..."

"Screw it. I wanna kill some sunsabitches." Ellis hopped off the ladder and picked up his pistols and hunting rifle. "Anyone comin' with me?"

"HA. Fat chance, overalls." Nick smirked lopsidedly as he landed the twenty-sixth chip on Coach's belly. "They're big kids, they got to us fine, didn't they?"

"Rochelle? Jason? Anyone?" Ellis ignored Nick's comment, looking at the group that were comfortably ignoring the southerner, unwilling to budge. "Well, fine then, I see no one's gunna miss me. See y'later, all."

Ellis turned on his heel and walked out the red metal doors, with a distinct slam after he left.

"I was eating, dammit Ellis." Rochelle wiped her face instinctively, after all –she was raised to not speak with a full mouth. She poked at Coach, knowing she wouldn't get any support from Nick. When Coach didn't awake, she looked at Nick with annoyed eyes. "Look Nick; those girls didn't have to go out alone, and just because you 'don't like them' doesn't mean they should be out on a suicide mission for smokes you know _damned_ well you can get yourself, and to top it off Ellis is chasing after them to keep them safe with _no back up_. Now come on."

"You're not giving me any choice are you? I thought Canada was based on freedom. Ro... Ro! I think you're overreacting..." Nick rolled his eyes as Ro snatched a handful of his jacket and pulled him to his feet. He emphasized looking around, "Oh, what a shame...Rikki took my gun _and_ my katana...I guess I _am_ looking out for them after all."

"Get your shoes on." Rochelle responded to this statement by pulling out butcher's knife, "Have at 'em, Colonel."

"Oh god..." Nick slipped his shoes on, took the knife and pulled at Jason's collar. "Let's go kid; we need a shot like you. Leo...uh...stay here and be smart."

Leo gave a slight salute at Nick and went back to his computer.

Once the three left, Leo looked at the sleeping mass on the couch beside him. Unsure of what to do with the sudden silence of the library, he just shrugged and continued his barrage of typing. I don't think anyone actually _knew_ what he was doing on that laptop. Suddenly, Coach's eyes opened and he sat up, causing all the poker chips that Nick flicked at him to fall off.

"What the..." Coach looked at the scattered chips around him in confusion and turned his sleepy gaze to Leo, whose eyes widened a little with realization.

"Ah...heh, it wasn't me." Leo put his hands up with supposed innocence. "Seriously, it was suit-guy..."

"Mhmm..." Coach raised a brow before sitting back on the couch. "Yeah...he's not as mature he likes to think. Where'd e'ryone go?"

"They all went after Jude and her pals." Leo started to explain, and Coach recognized this as Leo started pushing up his glasses, "See, their weed supply disappeared, and Rikki mentioned her previous boyfriend's occupation of selling weed. So they're out to raid the house he was last at and return with weed, beer, smokes, and food...I hope they remember food. Like...other than sandwich stuff."

"And how..." Coach praised the thought non-rabbit food.

* * *

"Okay, I think that's all the weed we're gonna get here. What about the alcohol?" I asked Jude and Kay who were putting beer cans and bottles in backpacks. Bandit and I were finding every bit of weed we could find, along with paraphernalia, matches and lighters. Then memories of past parties in the house made me remember certain places. "Hey, Jude...check the freezers. I'm pretty sure there's more."

"More what?" Jude asked as she opened the fridge's freezer, which was full of bottles of rum, whiskey, and vodka. "Holy shit balls of shit. Jackpot!"

"That's what." I was digging out of a pocket of a body, when I recognized the jacket. It was white with pink and purple stripes with a neon pink liner. But it was covered in blood and torn to shreds, and still had the body of Zee decomposing in it. Then I remembered that Zee had a 1988 camper her dad gave to her for her 19th birthday the year before, parked outside. But I couldn't find it in me to look at her anymore, in fact, I was rather nauseated. I looked away, but I was greeted with the sight of other friends lying around. I wasn't surprised to not find Jeremy. There were backpacks that looked like they'd come in handy, so I shook off what grief accumulated within those few minutes. Holding back the bile rising in my throat, I looked away as I dug in Zee's coat pocket. I felt the cool metal of keys and took them, turning away to throw up.

"Hey, look...we got a car now." I grimaced at the taste in my mouth, and ran to the bag that Kay was going to tie up and took out a beer and guzzled it. "Hey, I just got an idea since we've got wheels now; how about some games?"

"DUDE! I _sooo_ wanna play Left 4 Dead dude!" Kay hopped up and down before yanking the console from its position and hastily put it in a nearby backpack. She looked at the games as she plopped them in backpacks once one was full. "Hey, it's not here...there's every other game I can think of for the 360, but Left 4 Dead one _and_ two..."

"Enough with the zombies, is it not enough that there really _is_ an apocalypse happening all a-fucking-round you? I don't mean to sound so harsh, but seeing friends lying dead for no damned reason is really starting to get to me." I half cried as I spoke apologetically.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I just...I..." Kay stuttered for some words of comfort but came up short. She stopped talking and put a finger up to alert us she heard something. "I heard gunshots."

"Well, let's get us some freezer foods or something and get out of here." I started to zip up back packs and tie up pillow cases. "Maybe it's some of the group thinking we can't handle ourselves."

"YEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAH!" Ellis' voice carried over the growling and screams of zombies dying. "Kay! Bandit! Rikki! Jude! Anyone around!"

"HOWDY AYELUS!" Kay shouted back in the general direction. "We got ourselves a ride man!"

Ellis jogged over to us with a bleeding leg and right arm. An audible 'boom' could be heard as the last sounds of the horde disappeared. "Pipe bomb."

"Oh Ellis, you're bleeding..." I sighed, watching Ellis cling on to his shooting arm and lean forward to catch his breath. "Here...it's not much, but it'll help."

I gave Ellis some pain pills when I heard a woman scream and two male voices yelling cursive words as a witches scream pierced the air. "Are the others with you?"

"No ma'am, they didn't wanna follow 'long. Maybe it's them though." Ellis frowned slightly and winced as he dry swallowed some pills. I chucked him a beer which he guzzled down gratefully, "Hehey! Thanks! So how much 'llicit drinks you got there anyhow?"

Jude and Bandit gently shook the nine backpacks and three pillow cases of booze. Ellis' mouth spread into a gigantic grin as he finished his beer. "Not supposed ta wash pills down with beer, but what the hell."

"Yep, all we need are some smokes and since we have this," I gave the camper a light kick as I pointed it out, "Getting them will be easy, we just gotta drive down to the corner store...I mean, obviously it won't be open, but it should have more food and snacks and shit."

"Hey!" Jason's voice could be heard as we looked up to see a bloodied Rochelle hanging off of his and Nick's shoulders. "Got any med-kits?"

"Oh shit Ro, yeah...here, Nick, you know how to do this." I tossed a med-kit at Nick who just nodded and started skilfully wrapping wounds on Rochelle. I slid behind the driver's wheel and looked out the window. "Hop in!"

"So now what? Did you get smokes or anything?" Nick was sitting on the seat-bed with Kay, Jude, Bandit and Rochelle who was lying down.

"I can't wait to try you out...heheheheh." Ellis was sitting down in the passenger's seat with a bong in hand and smiling like a kid that got everything he wanted for Christmas.

"That's where we're going now." I gave a small nod and sighed a breath I didn't know I was holding in when I started the car. Jude ripped a piece of weed and fixed a bowl in the bong and chose a lighter to start it. "Hey, lemme have a toke before we go."

* * *

There weren't many zombies on the slow drive there. It was slow because I was really baked, but there weren't any cops to pull me over or other cars to honk in anger at my diminished driving skills. We got there unharmed and we were surprised that there weren't any alarms when we broke in to the store. Jude was the first to hop behind the counter and shuffle around in some drawers until she found a key ring. She opened the cigarette cabinet and started cheering.

"Holy shit dude! Now I'll never run out!" Jude hopped around as she handed carton by carton to any willing hands to go fill up the van. The rest of us were running around and gathering every bit of food we could. I think it's safe to say that none of us wanted to leave the safety of the library more than we needed to. "Okay, we ready to go back?"

Everyone looked at one another and took both what we wanted and needed. We took things like cheap convenience store movies and CD's, ice cream, apples, chips, pop, candy, first aid kits and the in-case-of-robbery gun. After the looting was complete and we had all we could possibly need for probably longer than a month, everyone looked at each other and gave a nod. We hopped back in the camper and drove back to the school. It was odd that there weren't any zombies that were chasing us, but it was probably around afternoon, so there weren't going to be many until the gloomy, cool summer night fell. I chanced a honk of the horn to get Leo and Coach out to help get everything in the library as fast as we could.

"Ahh, good to be home-ish..." Jude smiled as she flopped on a couch and lit a smoke.

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**A/N: Yay! So that's an odd end to chapter 5. :D Review please? =DD **


	6. Kings

**A/N: So I guess it's time for the survivors to just let go and have some fun. :D**

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**Chapter Six: Kings**

"So...now what?" I asked as I flopped on the chair beside Jude, who was already rolling joints. I grabbed the first one she finished and lit it, and grabbed a beer. "Ah, this is more like it."

"That is so much alcohol..." Jason was in awe watching Bandit and Kay refill the freezer with the bottles of rum, whiskey and vodka. Rochelle and Ellis were putting the beers in the fridge. "It was really just sitting around in that tiny house?"

"Yeah, want a beer?" I held up a beer bottle that Jason grinned at and held his hand out, so I chucked it over. I took out a lunch tray and popped open some beers and put them on the tray to serve, "Anyone else?"

Everyone raised a hand besides Kay. I walked through the library handing out a beer at a time, receiving a small thanks or a smile, omit Nick. There was one left as I approached Kay. "C'mon, Kay...you've tried weed already, why not conserve our juice and water supply?"

Kay gave a small look of uneasiness as she took the bottle of Kokanee and then a small sip. She cringed a little at the taste but then shrugged after it went down. "It tastes like sour apple juice with my old gym socks soaking in it."

"That's...one way to look at it..." Nick gave a small frown at her description while drinking his beer. "So...anyone up for a game of cards?"

"OH! I've been wanting to play this for awhile..." I perked up for the first time in awhile and grabbed the deck of cards and started to shuffle them. "Anyone know how to play Kings?"

"I think so..." Jason raised a hand, "Is that the one with the rules for all the cards or something?"

"Yeah, well how I learned was the cards would be around a cup in the middle and we come up with some rules for each card." Bandit tried to explain how the game was supposed to go, "whatever, we'll teach you. Me and Jude'll write some rules, dude."

"Okay...so, does anyone else sometimes forget what's outside? I mean, like, look at what we're doing; drinking, smoking weed, chattering happily...et cetera" I spoke, trying to keep the small talk going. "Because I do, sometimes, I mean I keep thinking that I'll just wake up and go home and everyone'll be okay. It's corny, but that's what I feel like sometimes..."

"Honey, I've been dreaming of that day since day one." Ro sat back with her beer, as if to let herself go. "I have good dreams from time to time, but otherwise I'm living in a nightmare. I mean, I had a promotion coming up; I had my mom to look after, you know, a life to be lived. This whole zombie apocalypse came along and ruined everything for everyone."

"Yeah, hey...party girl. Let's not talk about this now; you were really getting the party going before you said all that." Nick scoffed as he finished his beer. "I meant Rikki, not you Ro. Don't look at me like that. My heart goes out to you, really."

"Oh Nick...dry ice doesn't count." Ro jeered at the ever-annoyed man sitting on the chair by a shelf of kids' books. Nick just made a face of false laughter at the lady in pink as she chucked bottle caps at him.

"Hey!" Nick frowned.

"I was just curious, jeez..." I finished setting up the cards and set a tall cup in the middle of the circle of cards. "Done...just waiting for the rules."

"We just need one more, what can we put for ten?" Jude looked up from the paper with the rules set on it.

"Uh, how about 'fuck'?" I asked.

"Got that one already." Bandit gave a nod as she spoke.

"Oh, well...pass drink to the right?" I asked again.

"OH, shit, I forgot about the cup." Jude frowned as she erased the rules to fix them up a bit. "Okay, that's better. Ready. Everyone have a beer ready?"

"Is everyone playing?" Ellis looked around, sitting at the table already, poised to take a card first. Everyone but Nick and Leo came over. I guess Leo had a reason, being eternally busy on his laptop, but surprisingly he closed it and took a seat beside Jude. "Nick, ya playin' or not?"

"He's just afraid he won't win." Bandit smirked, knowing what she was saying. Nick looked up from his beer, and kept his stare on Bandit as he came over to sit down. "That's what I thought."

"Okay, I'm going first, but you're gonna hafta explain what's goin' on, okay?" Ellis smiled as he picked up the first card. "What's an eight?"

"Slap," Jude looked at the paper to make sure, as Ellis turned to Leo and slapped his arm ("Ow...what the hell Ellis?), "As in you slap the table at any given time and the last one that does drinks, you don't actually slap someone."

"That doesn't sound as fun as smacking someone, but okay..." Ellis grinned at Leo who was rubbing his arm slightly, as he left the card face up and looked at Bandit to continue the game. "Sorry dude."

"Well, you'll see how the game pans out; maybe you can smack someone." Bandit picked up her card, "three?"

"Give two drinks, haha." I laughed at Bandit's expression as she gave her beer to Jude to take two drinks, "My turn; Queen?"

"Finish your drink, lucky..." Bandit pouted as she watched me guzzle my beer and get another one. "Go Nick."

"I don't see how anyone wins..." Nick looked at the cards a little apprehensively, but picked one up anyways and looked at the rules himself. He turned to me and gave me his beer, "Ten said to. You gotta chug it."

"Preparing her for later, Nick?" Jude asked with a face that said she was trying not to laugh. She could've sworn his eyes glowed red from the stare he returned to her comment, "Holy shit, or not..."

"She's on my right side, right?" Nick tossed the paper to prove that was the rule he got. "This game is stupid..."

"You're stupid." Kay made a face I thought only a five year old could muster.

"Yeah, real mature, kid." Nick looked at Kay with a slightly amused face, and surprised us all when he made a face back at her.

"Crap, that's terrifying." Bandit looked at her beer and was tempted to guzzle it down to wash out the memory of Nick making a face. "Go Jude."

"Oh...waterfall!" Jude smiled as she started the 'waterfall' by starting to guzzle her beer, followed by everyone one after the other. As she finished her beer, she looked at everyone; who soon finished their drinks. "Yum."

"My turn!" Kay smiled as she picked up a card, "Four's for whores!" All the girls took a drink before turning to Rochelle to pick up her card.

"What's fi-" Ro started her question but Ellis slapping the table really loudly interrupted her, as everyone raced not to be the last. Rochelle chuckled as Nick gave a small pout as he took another drink. "What's five?"

"OH, that's moose, and it's like slap but you gotta do this" Bandit put her hands beside her head to imitate antlers, "last one drinks."

"Oh, okay...very Canadian..." Ro put the card back on the pile and looked at Coach, who picked up a queen and finished his drink with no comment but a smirk as he looked at Jason to keep the game going.

"Six is for dicks, haha..." Jason just shook his head as he and the guys took a drink as Leo picked up a card, Ro using this as an advantage as she mimed moose antlers. Leo just looked up and smiled as he took a drink.

"Nine...how does 'I Never' work in Kings if it's a game in itself?" Leo looked at Kay to Jude and then me with questioning eyes.

"You say something you've truthfully never did, and if other players have done that they put a finger up, and first one to get three fingers drinks." I explained as Leo nodded and took to thinking.

"I never went streaking." Leo stated as Ellis, Nick, and Jason put a finger up, making everyone laugh in disbelief. "Ew..."

"Well, I never...uh...I never cooked in my _life_." Ellis smirked, as Jason and Bandit put up a finger. "I mean sure, I eat, I just don't cook."

"I never did coke." Bandit smirked at Jude who rolled her eyes as she put up a finger, along with Nick and Jason. "Jason you drink."

"Neat." Jason grinned as he took another chug at his diminished beer. "I need another beer, and maybe another joint please..."

* * *

About two or three hours of solid playing of Kings, not much of us could stand, let alone stumble to the fridge to retrieve another beer. Laughing away and giggling at Ellis' stories, Bandit perked up as she turned on the TV and the Xbox with quite some difficulty.

"We need music or something..." Bandit's voice came out with a small slur. She hooked up my iPod I found in Jeremy's backpack. "Like Def Leppard, which I think is _thee_ best drinking music there is!"

"Oh, put on 'Lady Strange', will ya?" Ellis smiled goofily at Kay, "wanna dance? It'll be _fun_."

"Eh, what the hell..." Kay shrugged as she let Ellis lead her to the open space by the TV and started to dance. Everyone looked at one another, shifting a little, as if to wonder when a zombie apocalypse turned into a school dance. Jason shrugged and grabbed Bandit's hand and went to dance.

"At least it's music; that I'll dance to." Jason grinned as he and Bandit started to dance too.

"Aw, cute you guys." Ro giggled as she turned to me and smirked as she spoke, "So, what's with this Nick stuff. Those few have been talking." She gestured at Bandit, Jude and Kay. Nick was watching Ellis and Kay with slight amusement and a cup of rum in his hand.

... ...

"Hey, Ellis, seriously...why am _I _the pedophile?" Nick called out, taking an unnecessary sip from his glass of white rum. Ellis looked over to Nick then back to Kay. After the song was over Kay wandered over to Jude to share a joint.

"Hey Kay, uh, how old are you?" Ellis looked at Kay a little more apprehensively than he would've liked to.

"Sixteen...I guess that makes _you_ pedo-Elle!" Kay giggled a little at Ellis' face of disbelief.

"Seriously? Damn...I mean you look older...I...What the hell man..." Ellis just shook his head as he went to sit beside Nick, who had taken to a drunken hysteric form of laughter. "Shut up Nick."

... ...

"Ro, nothing's going on..." I looked at Ro who was just smiling, seemingly spaced out on a thought. "I mean...how _old_ is he, compared to how old I am...It's a little awkward to compare."

"Well, it's only a...an..seventeen year difference...yeah, that is kinda awkward." Rochelle looked a little amazed, like she didn't notice the age difference. "Oh, I feel old now..."

"Why, how old are you?" I asked, even though I probably knew the answer.

"Thirty-one...and Nick's going to be thirty-seven this year." Ro just gave a sigh as she took a swig of what must've been her nineteenth beer.

"See, awkward...well...huh...so...what's with the zombies?" I asked; trying to keep conversation since Ro was trying to chug her beer. That or it was preparation to answer.

"Man, I've been in this hell for three years." Ro startled me with this sentence.

"Three..._years_?" I didn't know what to say besides more questions, "I mean...how...we haven't heard of any of this is until last week! That's...just...fucked up...I am SO confused, how?"

"I...I don't know...if I had to guess, it's the government_s_." Rochelle just shook her head, "I guess they thought they could handle the Green Flu."

"Or they started it." Leo perked into our drunken discussions while pushing his glasses up. "See, I've been doing some research on this for awhile now, and what I've dug up...well...it's not pretty."

"Leo, sweetie...what are you talking about...?" Ro looked at the nerdy guy with an eyebrow raised. We looked around to make sure we weren't spoiling anyone's night. "How do you know this, exactly?"

"There were...theories...that the government detested thoroughly, hence the category of 'conspiracy'...anyways there was a group that was hell-bent on 'New World Order' by any means necessary. Including population control." Leo gulped a little as he pushed up his glasses and took a drink from his beer in his hand.

"Population control...that's fucked up." Ro shook her head in disbelief, "how?"

"By controlling every aspect of daily life; media, governmental issues, social issues...health care..." Leo started to trail off, seemingly not wanting to talk much more. "It's in plain sight, that's the sickening thing."

"Wait, how do you know this is true?" Ro dug deeper, trying to get a grasp on what Leo was saying.

"Wait, wait, wait...Leo, are you talking about that Illuminati shit? Fuck man...I _knew_ they were real." I looked at Leo, who nodded, to my beer I was holding in my hand. Eighteen beers didn't feel like enough, suddenly. I steadily finished by beer as Leo continued his 'brief' explanation.

"Well, from what I can gather...which is a _little_ easier since the mainframe was down for three hours after the initial breakthrough of the boarders, there was a compound in the H1N1 vaccinations. That compound left some leeway of having chance of being immune to this Living Dead Disease or Green Flu; Illuminati Mutation, if you will. This is the New World Order gone horribly wrong, because the compound was supposed to _kill_ the host, and whoever didn't get the shots were supposed to be the beginning of a New World. Some would the survive the shots and other means of creating this World, but they would be left sterile and deemed useful for labour mostly...you know what...I don't feel like I should be getting into this right now...I'll wait on it for a bit, until I've done enough research to answer all questions or something...so...if you ladies don't mind; don't tell anyone about what I just said, at least not yet please and...I'll...just go over here...Sorry if I wrecked your night." Leo smiled a little goofily for the information he just sputtered out with a forced nonchalance.

"No no, it is okay sweetie...you're just...really odd most of the time." Ro reasoned a little with her mind as she tried to just not believe everything she was told. That went against everything she'd ever believed in about the world and how it worked. Leo just nodded and went to lie down on a mat; he clearly had too much to drink and Ro clearly hoped that what he just said wasn't real. "Um...what were we talking about?"

"Zombies..." I responded, watching Ro nod before giving me a blatantly suspicious stare of unbelieving.

"Nick. You avoided it. You know what? I'm just going to assume you two like each other. End of story." Ro smiled and wandered over to Nick, who was talking with Ellis and Coach about something. Both Ellis and Nick stopped talking and gave Ro an overly friendly look and smile. "Hey, what's up guys?"

Sighing, I looked at the other girls; Jude was sitting really close to Leo, obviously flirting with the nerd while Bandit sat on the other side of her talking avidly with Jason being completely clueless to Jason's obvious flirting. Kay was swearing her head off at the TV; she was probably playing Call of Duty in her obsessive manner. Not wanting to bother any of them, I walked to go join the other adults who were sitting at the makeshift poker table.

"Hey Rikki!" Ellis slurred slightly as he perked his head towards me, "So tell me...I mean, Nick noticed your guys' dresses an' all first, but you didn't tell us _why_ you're wearin' em. So's I just got a question, why?"

"Oh...um...our attire is a result of the Green Flu's effects on normal parents. My mom made me and Bandit wear a dress before we went to a birthday party and when we escaped from the boredom, zombies decided to ruin the day." I explained morbidly, taking the seat between Ro and Nick. I had a feeling that Ro had intentionally left that seat open.

"Quite the party girl, hey Rikki?" Nick smirked at me as he took a sip from his glass.

"Huh, that's an interesting thing to say, Mr. Pessimist." I took the beer sitting by Nick's elbow, despite his slight glare as I opened it. "Oh, was this yours?"

"Was...whatever, I need to piss anyways." Nick stood up and walked towards the boys' change room. Ellis' legs were wiggling, seemingly, uncomfortably.

"Quite the charmer ain't ya." I just shook my head at Nick as he turned to make a mocking face of laughing at my comment, before disappearing into the change room.

"I gotta go too..." Ellis scurried off towards the change room too.

"Does he always follow Nick?" I asked Ro and Coach, who both nodded.

"Ellis is like the annoying little brother you get stuck on." Ro smiled fondly, "He's a good guy to have around in something like this...his damned stories can keep you laughing, if you listen to him. Just a little inconvenient when we're trying to keep attention away from us."

"Out of the four of us, Nick is the one that Ellis has taken a likin' to the most." Coach just chuckled heartily as he picked up the bottle of Heineken in front of him. "Sometimes I reckon it's a little more than likin'."

"How lovely..." I made a face at the thought, as Ro just raised her eyebrows in agreement with Coach. I couldn't see a gruff pessimistic man with a goofy and happy southerner. But opposites tend to bond better; I realized, thinking of Jeremy for the first time in a week.

... ... ... ...

"Hey Nick?" Ellis stood over the urinal as he spoke to Nick standing a few urinals down. He seemed to have surprised the older man, who jerked a little and made a face at a wet spot on his shoe.

"Ah shit...Ellis? You know, its things like these that make Ro and Coach think we're gay." Nick frowned as he went to go wash his hands, commenting on Ellis following him everywhere.

"What? They think that? Why?" Ellis' eyebrows scrunched together, trying to understand.

"Well, you follow me _everywhere_ and...you know what, never mind." Nick dried his hands with some paper towel as he turned to the younger man, "So what do you want."

"I just gotta ask you a question, one sec." Ellis finished up and walked to go wash his hands as he continued to speak, ignoring Nick's comments, "I noticed you takin' a liking to Rikki, and I just gotta know something. Do you think you can ask her if she likes me? 'Cause honestly, you're too old for the girl."

"Ah god, you're too drunk kiddo. No I will not ask her –old?" Nick's stare flattened at the words that came out of the southerner's mouth. "Ellis, thirty-six isn't that old."

"Ha! So you _do_ like her." Ellis frowned and smiled at the same time, somehow.

"How does that have any relevance, Ellis?" Nick shook his head at the drunken man. He seemed to be smitten with any other female that wasn't Ro; well at least since she rejected him cold turkey back in New Orleans, and since he never did get to see Zoey again.

"I said you're too old for Rikki, dude! I didn't call you old; it's not rocket science man." Ellis giggled at the gambler's reddening face. "But...I like her too, Nick. I'm more age appropriate, so I'm asking you a favour."

"Ugh, why don't you just ask her yourself?" Nick groaned in rising annoyance.

"Because Nick, you know how I talk to girls. I get all-"

"Chatty as fuck, you'll do fine. Besides, what about Kay? For that matter, what about Zoey? I thought you were gonna marry her." Nick's eyebrows rose as he turned to Ellis, who had been twiddling his thumbs, going pink as Nick's comment cornered him.

"Kay's sixteen, and I don't know where Zoey is." Ellis sighed, "Oh wait...if you don't care that you're seventeen years older than Rikki, I won't care that I'm only ten years older than Kay. Glad we got that settled."

"Or, just a _crazy_ thought I had, we can leave them alone since they're kids, and that'll leave them free for other kids their age." Nick sat down on the low counter, being in an elementary school and all. "If there's any other kids their age left, that is..."

"But then, that leaves Rikki for me, Nick." Ellis grinned, trying to strike a nerve in Nick.

"Whatever..." Nick stood up, clearly annoyed with the younger man who was following close on his heels. "Do what you want."

"Rikki?" Ellis smiled as he bumped into a _very_ annoyed Nick, who'd stopped and turned around to face him.

"I. Don't. Care." Nick sputtered uselessly at Ellis' ever sure of himself expression.

"Sure you don't, Nick." Ellis smiled as he walked by the older man and slightly stumbled to the fridge, then the table and gave Ro a beer. "Hey, here you go Ro, you were right."

* * *

**A/N: So, the survivors can't have too much fun, since there are still zombies everywhere. But it's nice to get away from that morbid topic every now and then. I've decided that this story will be based more on how the people will deal with it emotionally, and focus on being safe. There will still parts that get right down to the zombie action. :D**

**REVIEW! I know people have been reading it, in fact, A LOT of people have been reading it, and only 4 reviews! TT_TT**


	7. Good Morning

**A/N: I'm just going to keep moving along. I really wish people would review more. Oh, also, I'm a try a stab at doing different POV's. I'll keep my stab in the chapter, but if I don't like how it turns out, I'll stop with the different POV's.**

* * *

**Chapter Seven: Good Morning**

"Ellis, that's not funny." Nick just shook his head at the younger man, while Ro was giggling and drinking her beer. I guess they made a bet on something, probably Ro's adolescent assumptions.

"Yeah, you're right Nick...ain't anything funny when it's true." Ellis' grin spread wide, taunting.

"Oh shut up already." Nick just plopped back in the seat he was sitting at before he went to the bathroom. I didn't know what the two were fighting about, since there was music playing just loud enough to be loud without attracting much attention from the zombies absent-mindedly hitting their heads on the walls or fighting each other, from the sounds of it.

"Right about what?" I asked Ro, who just broke into another fit of giggles; I began to think that so much alcohol was a bad idea.

"Never mind, hun." Ro just took a deep breath and tried to keep a straight face. "I feel like I'm in highschool again."

"What does that even mean?" Nick spoke flatly, as if to say he gave up.

"Exactly what you think it can mean, Nicky." Ro smiled as she drunk from the bottle Ellis handed to her. "Dawwweh, that's sooo cute! You guys; their names rhyme! Nicky and Rikki!"

Somehow, this was funnier to everyone else than it sounded like it should've been. Even I giggled a little, but it was more _at_ Ro rather than with her. She was kind of funny to watch, as with many kinds of drunk people.

"I think you've had enough beer, Ro." I put a hand on her arm to stop her as she reached to finish her beer, cackling away at her own joke. "Seriously..."

"I don't think you've had enough!" Ro slurred a little as she just passed the beer to me while I tried to figure out how nineteen beers wasn't enough.

"Maybe you should go to bed or something." I picked Rochelle up by the arm and kind of chucked her onto a high jump mat. Cackling away, she decided to prove something.

"Nickyyy...why don't you come to bed too?" Ro smiled daringly at the man in the suit, who just smirked and shook his head at the woman. I couldn't tell if it was in disagreement or just amusement that she was that drunk and couldn't tell if she was serious or not. "Awweh, why not? Rikki doesn't seem to like you like _I _do."

... ... ...

I just wandered away at that point; more annoyed at myself, rather Rochelle. It just struck the wrong chord in me knowing that Ro's attempt to prove that I liked Nick did kind of make me jealous. I guess Bandit and Kay saw this and came over with the bong Ellis had claimed. When I saw it, I was actually saddened at the thought of using it; it was Jeremy's. I still curse myself for bursting into tears at the sight of it. I'm not a sappy drunk or anything, it's just a lot changed in the last week of August.

"Rikki...what's wrong?" I didn't answer Kay at first and just shook my head. "Man, I thought for sure she'd feel better getting baked or something..."

"Maybe it's because Ro and Nick are making out." Jude appeared seemingly out of nowhere, that or my tears blurred up a lot. I wiped the tears away and glanced at the mat in the corner, the one I chucked Ro on to begin with. "Some friend, huh? Reminds me of Forrest."

"Yeah. Watch, after today she'll apologize and blame it on being drunk and say that she still thinks that she should go out with him anyways. Forrest and her giving of used goods all over again." Bandit just shook her head. I remembered why too. I giggled a little at this and just took a deep breath. I was annoyed at the entanglement of limbs in the corner but turned to my friends anyways. The last thing they needed to deal with was a gloomy drunk.

"No, it's not that at all...it's that thing that set me off." I gestured at the bong in Kay's hand. "It's Jeremy's."

"Ohh...shit...well we can roll a joint or something." Jude seemed to recognize the lady devils carved on the length of the bong.

As if add effect to the drunken night, I heard a gurgle of throwing up. I looked around to see who'd puked first. I saw Nick hop backwards off of the mat as Ro's vomit spread on his stomach area.

"Aww, fuck..." Nick just grimaced as he spit out Ro's puke and looked at the bile on his suit. He turned to go to the change room while everyone laughed at him as gave us all the finger as he passed.

"Man, that's jus humiliatin'." Ellis laughed as he watched the gambler rush to go wash off and probably puke his own guts up.

I went to go help Ro up and go to the bathroom to wash up. "Somebody clean that up please...I'm gonna help her. C'mon girl, we'll get you cleaned up."

"Awwwweh, you're such a sweetheart Rikki." Rochelle smiled at me, but something seemed odd about it. It was probably just because she was drunk. Really drunk. Nonetheless, I helped her rinse her face and take a shower with her clothes on, and change into the team uniforms I'd found days earlier. The whole time she didn't stop jabbering away about the zombies, her mother, and Nick. Finally, she seemed to notice who was helping her and spoke up more clearly. "Listen, Rikki. You're a nice girl and all, but I gotta ask you something. Do you care about me?"

"What?" I didn't know how I heard her, so I had to ask.

"Like, do you care for my happiness or whatever...?" Ro repeated, sort of.

"Well, I don't want you to be sad all the time if that counts." I pointed out, feeling kind of hypocritical, being down and out all the time, at least since the zombies invaded life. I did my best not to let it show.

"Well then, stay away from Nick." Her warning seemed coldly similar to a friend's that had dated Jeremy before I even mentioned I liked him. So, naturally, I didn't figure it out. "I mean, I've known him longer."

"That's a little unfair, Ro. You and everyone else here is fixated on Nick liking me and vice versa, so where's this coming from?" I asked, sincerely dumbfounded by Ro's new jealousy act. In turn, Ro just laughed, but I couldn't tell if it was out of amusement or forced. There were a lot of things that I couldn't sort out that night, which made me realize just how drunk I was.

"Life isn't fair, Rikki. You made me realize that..." Ro looked like she was crying as she spoke.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I wasn't in the mood for her sappy, drunken attitude. I stood up, not realizing that Ro had fallen as she was leaning on me for support since I was helping her get her shirt on right. I considered leaving her there, but knelt down to help her, but she squirmed a lot, making it really difficult. The door opened and I looked up to see Nick. I was already confused. "Oh, speak of the devil and he'll come! Nick, what brings you here?"

"Bandit and Kay shoved me in here. Something about apologizing..." Nick just stared at the awkward position of me trying to get Ro's shirt on properly while sitting on the floor with her. "Uh...heh...what're you doing down there?"

"I'm uh, helping her not wander around naked like she insisted a little earlier. She's being difficult. Since you two are sooo close, why don't you finish up?" I stood up, letting Rochelle's head hit the floor. I didn't mean to. That must've made her mad, since she grabbed my ankle and I fell on my face. "What the fuck?"

"Tell me you don't like him." Ro stared at me with wild drunken eyes, "While he's here."

"Dude, I've only known him for a week. Fuck man..." I said, dusting myself off and standing up. I turned to see Ro wiggling slowly but surely into the jersey. I couldn't place when she had started to be so drunk. But it made me mad, confronting me in front of Nick in a drunken freak-out. Nick just scrunched his eyebrows at the woman lying on the floor with a backwards shirt on. I didn't know what the hell to say to her, and I seriously doubted she'd remember. I looked at Nick again, who was staring at me with a drunken confusion. I sighed and walked out of the bathroom, confused as hell. I heard Rochelle's laughter echoing in the change room.

* * *

"What happened, Rikki?" Bandit, Jude, Kay and Ellis had gathered with their ears at the door; when I opened the door, Ellis fell into me, being the one listening closest to the door. I just put Ellis upright and shrugged. Ellis blushed a little.

"Sorry, Rikki. But...should I mention that Ro's done this before?" Ellis just gave a small smile, "It was kinda funny at first, but then it was just downright stupid. She was goin' on about how I was 'in tha closet with Nick' and to stay away from him or some shit. I dunno, I barely r'ember."

"So, she likes Nick? Or was that all some dumbass drunken act to try make me admit I like Nick?" I paused, it seemed...well aside from the first part, not reasonable, but plausible. "I don't know. I'm just fucking confused."

"Mee too, dude." Jude just passed a joint to me, which I accepted gratefully. "That's dumb; even _I_ wouldn't go that far, especially if I only knew you for a week. Man I've known you and Bandit since we were just munchkins!"

"Yeah, let's not talk in front of the door." I pointed out, not wanting to be standing there when the two emerged. The five of us went to join Jason and Coach's game of blackjack. Leo was passed out on the couch by the librarian's desk. "Wait a sec, so Ro thought you were _gay_?"

"Yeeup, I dunno why though." Ellis just chuckled a little, "I mean I tried 'n' _tried_ to git with her. Then she goes 'n' said she thought I was gay...so it didn't work out so well. I'm not gay; I was born 'n' raised Christian."

"Good for you, Ellis." I gave a small praise to Ellis, which made him smile crookedly. "Age difference matters more to girls, that's probably why too."

"Is that why you won't say you like-like Nick?" Ellis tilted his head. This was turning into a really annoying night that I wanted to be done with. "I mean, I don't think Ro likes Nick tha much."

"She was only making out with him, that's all." I pointed out, I wasn't sure if it bothered me or not. It just needed to be said. "I don't know...I just wanna sleep."

"Your evasion of answering clearly says it all." Kay smiled deviously at me. I just chose to smile back and flop on a futon in the little kid's corner. "See, you guys?"

"Good night!" I made it clear I was going to sleep, before anything else happened. I didn't think the morning would be very pretty to live through, having nineteen beers and all. Good thing too, I was out cold the moment my head touched the pillow.

... ... ...

"Nick the dick, and Ro the hoe." Bandit looked at the man in the suit with a semi-glare. This made everyone else laugh but Ro and Nick who emerged from the change room not even a minute after I flopped asleep. "You both made Rikki sad, I oughtta sack you both."

"What did _I _do?" Ro just stared with the drunken haze still in place. Nick just looked at his feet as he walked away from Ro with a look of annoyance and shame of sorts. Ro just swayed in place, confused as to where her balancing aid went. "I just wanted to know if Rikki liked Nick. What else was I supposed to do? She wasn't answering me."

"Well, not Nick, that's for sure." Kay pointed out. I think I was lucky, being asleep and all. Ro just snapped her head to Kay and walked in a squiggly line to the mat she had puked on not too long before. It looked clean enough, but it probably didn't smell very nice to sleep on. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

"Whatever, I'm tired of this drama. I think Rikki is too. So Nick you dick, you better apologize to her, because from the looks of it, you didn't." Jude just sighed, letting out a cloud of smoke as she spoke, gesturing towards me.

"Whatever..." Nick just flopped on a mat near the red metal door.

"G'night asshole!" He was asleep within minutes. Ellis and Kay looked at each other with a small grin in place. They walked over to the sleeping man and grabbed his arms and legs, lifting him up and waddled with the sleeping being over to the futon I was sleeping on and plopped him beside me.

"That's better." Ellis grinned, 'dusting' his hands off. "Oh, wait wait...jus a sec." He delicately lifted my arm and placed it on Nick's waist. They did the same thing with Nick's arm. I feel stupid telling this whole drunken ordeal, but it happened, so I suppose I should. The group giggled and laughed, a lot. "Okay, now we can...uh...somethin'."

"I think I'm a hit the hay." Kay yawned and flopped on the couch in front of the TV. Everyone else wandered towards their make shift beds. "G'night everyone!"

* * *

I had a dream that night. It was a calming, sweet dream. Mostly about waking up and seeing Jeremy again, so I held him close. He smiled at me. It wasn't much more than that; we just lay there like that for hours, years and eternity all at the same time. It was confusingly nice.

... ... ... Nick's POV ... ... ...

I woke up, and it was dark since the lights weren't on. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I felt an arm tightening around my waist. Looking down, I saw my arm was wrapped around the small figure of Rikki. Confused as shit, I wanted answers. What the hell did I do the night before? She was smiling. That wasn't good. I looked down at myself and was glad there were still clothes on me. Rikki moved closer, and I couldn't bring myself to move away. Not because I didn't want to, but my head gave off this cracking pain that felt like a hammer was smashing it with every tiny movement. It was fucking annoying. I moved Rikki's arm once, but it fell back in place anyways, while she gave a small frown at me for moving it. I got uncomfortable with my arm at my side, so I let my arm droop over Rikki's shoulder again.

"I chose a great time to be hungover." I mumbled quietly to myself. I decided to try remember the night before.

I sorted out what I did remember. I recalled playing Kings, but not much more than that. Oh wait, I kind of remembered Ellis talking to me in the bathroom, god that was annoying. And getting puked on, though I don't know who did it. Why did I feel like I needed to apologize to Rikki? Wait, that was because someone told me to. I don't know. I tried to sneak out of the bed, but there was a gentle grip tugging at my collar. Sighing, I surrendered to the hold Rikki had on me. Literally, not...whatever. Besides, my head was dead and I lost the will to move anyways. I hoped she didn't wake up too soon, and that she'd move back so I could get up. If there's anything I learned about women, it was that they didn't like to be woken up bright and early after a night of drinking. I heard Rikki mumble incoherently as she smiled and plopped her head in the crook of my neck. It was...different, a nice different though. She smelled like a flower, like the kind I used to get for that bitch of an ex-wife when I'd accidently 'disappear' all night and came home maybe a day or two later. Well, until she caught on with...yeah never mind. It still irritated me. I allowed Rikki to stay like that, not like I had a choice anyways, and I had nothing better to do.

That was weird, not having anything to do besides get over a hangover. Normally by now, me or Coach would be waking up the others, gearing up getting out of the safe house as fast as we could so we didn't have to travel by night. I shifted a little, and was surprised that I wasn't uncomfortable. I don't think I should've moved, Rikki's eyes fluttered open and sleepily stared at me for a minute with a soft smile still hanging on her face before really waking up. She jolted up and made a move to the edge of the mattress before cringing, probably from a headache too.

"Nick, what the hell?" She seemed just as confused as me. She pulled her knees to her chest and looked away. "How...I thought you went to bed with Ro or something...Ow, fuck my head hurts."

"Well, good morning to you too, sweetheart. And I didn't go to bed with anyone. I just passed out and now I'm here." I didn't know how to else to explain it. She just stared at me, then at my lower body and giggled. I looked down again and saw a red-brown splotch I vaguely remembered being put there. "What?"

"Do you remember Ro?" She asked with a timid smile, like she was hiding something. I shook my head and regretted it. It hurt to do that. I closed my eyes trying to remember, then it hit me, Ro and I were making out, and then she puked all over me. Fuck that was gross. The thought of it made me feel fucking nauseous, so I jolted up and ran to the bathroom, not caring how much it hurt my head. After spilling my guts out, I washed up. When I left the bathroom, I saw that everyone was still passed out, besides Rikki. She was lying down again, with an arm over her eyes and a hand on her stomach. "I guess you do remember Ro, huh?"

"Ha, you're real funny cupcake." I was all I managed to spit back at her. I could feel the eye roll she thought she hid under her arm as she gave a small smile but stopped right away. She had a habit of doing that; smiling when her eyes were closed then stopping when she realized people can see it. Honestly, it was kind of cute. But then I remembered she was nineteen, still a kid. Then I remembered I was in Canada, where nineteen isn't a kid. Fuck, how the hell did I end up here? This place sucks as many balls as a hooker can think of.

I stood there for a while; though standing really made my head pound. I was unsure of what to do, since it looked like the others piled all the mats to make a thicker sleeping thing. I wanted to lie down, and I guess that was asking too much. I took a few more steps closer to the futon that had a space screaming at me to lie down on it. I sighed, and looked at Rikki, who was just staring at the ceiling.

"Mind if I lie here?" I asked her, not really expecting the headshake that must've hurt her head. So I was careful to leave enough room between the two of us. I turned my back to her at first, but found it uncomfortable. I hate to admit that it was more comfy before Rikki woke up. Everything inside me was turning and twisting, but when I was on my back it stopped. Now that was annoying. I guess she noticed my shifting, trying not to puke again, so I looked at her to see an amused face. "Uh...so..."

"What's up...?" Rikki dragged her words a little, like she wasn't in the mood to be awake just yet. I just shrugged, wondering what the hell to talk about. Like I said, I was used of little to no talking until the next safe house. So that's never happened, being awake with one person out of a group, a stranger. Hell, everyone there was just a motley group of strangers...maybe not Rikki and her friends. "Well...you look about as bad as I feel."

"Ditto." I replied, not knowing what else to say. I figured I'd feel better with a small glass of rum or something, so I stood up. It didn't hurt as much, my head I mean. I went to the cupboard that seemed to have everything. Cups, plates, forks and spoons, chips, soda...et cetera, et cetera. It was probably from the trip the day before, you know, before the drinking. I grabbed some soda, not caring which kind as long as it was brown and filled my cup half way with dark rum and the other half with soda. Rikki looked up from her futon and raised an eyebrow at the bottle of rum sitting beside me on the counter. I looked back at her and took a good long drink from my cup. I normally had a good strong drink to get over hangovers, it helped.

"Can you pour me some too, please?" Rikki asked mildly, with a face that showed she probably did the same thing as I did. "Good and strong, I think it'll help more than pain pills. I guess we gotta conserve them, hey?"

I don't remember the last time someone asked me to do something for them and say 'please' in the same sentence. So I just nodded as I finished my drink. I think it was Dr. Pepper, and it didn't taste bad so I made another one, and took it to Rikki. "Here."

"Thank-you kindly..." Rikki guzzled the drink down and lay down again. "Better."

I took out my pack of smokes and sat at the end of the futon. I lit up a smoke and leaned back a little, resting on my elbows and letting the smoke drift up. I let my head hang backwards; I had a crick in my neck and it felt better that way. I saw Rikki looking at me strangely through the smoke.

"Are you always this comfortable wherever you've slept?" Rikki asked as she sat up and pulled her knees to her chest again, resting her chin on her arms. I just gave an awkward upside down nod, it was true; if I slept somewhere and I had a chance to stay there until I was fully awake, then I did. I sat up and pulled another smoke out of the case and held it out to her while turning to stretch out my legs while leaning back on my hands. "Oh, cool...got a light? Thanks."

We sat there like that for some time...if I had a watch I'd be better at guessing. I was trying to remember why I had to apologize so I just decided to say it, since no one was awake to patronize me for doing it.

"Hey, Rikki? Whatever I did, I made a mistake; I guess that means I'm sorry." I looked away; I wasn't used of apologizing, let alone for something I didn't know I did. Who knows; what if it was for something...awkward?

"For making out with Ro? I'm pretty sure that's what they told you to apologize for." Rikki raised an eyebrow. Damn, I knew I shouldn't have apologized, it was awkward. I was apologizing to one girl for making out with a different one. I grit my teeth as I felt the pink rise in my face, wanting to curse at it. I hated being embarrassed because I'd get embarrassed for being embarrassed. Next time, I'll ask what I have to apologize for. Sure it makes me look and feel like an asshole, but that's what I'm best at besides poker. Rikki just smiled and let out a puff of smoke. "Um...it's okay? All I really want to know is why I woke up with you...I mean I remember pretty much everything last night."

"Yeah, well, I mean I don't remember much, but I'm confused why I ended up on the futon." I wondered why my hangover was so bad. Oh wait, eighteen beers and six glasses of straight rum...that might explain it. I saw Rikki was shivering slightly, so without trying to look obvious, I looked around for a blanket. Everyone had or shared a blanket, except for Ellis and Bandit, they had four each. Frowning a little, I took off my blazer to see if it was cold. I guess fall comes early here, since the air had a chilling bite to it. Rikki's dress wasn't exactly the best thing to wear with no jacket. Or pants. I don't know what those three jerks did to me, but I felt the need to lend her my blazer until everyone else woke up. That's what seemed to be heating the library since the heaters all ran on gas, which probably didn't exist there. I chucked my blazer at Rikki as I stood up to go check if the showers were still hot. "There, you look cold."

... ... ... Back to Rikki ... ... ...

"Huh?" I was confused, mean-as-shit Nick had lent me his jacket. I wasn't that cold; I mean...I lived in Prince Rupert my whole life. But admittedly, I felt better with a jacket on. I really missed my jean jacket that was on the driver's seat of my car. My car! I knew what I wanted to do now. Nick came back from the change rooms and sat back down on the futon. He looked over with an uneasy look.

"So yeah...there's no gas heat or hot water anymore." Nick just sat there, staring ahead at nothing in particular. I pulled my arms through the coat and curled my knees up again. I was warm, and everyone else looked warm enough. "So we're basically camping."

"The lights work though, right?" I asked. "I mean, the food's kind of frozen or needs to be in the fridge. I don't think we can live off of chips and pop tarts."

"Yeah, those are fine, it's just it'll be cold...so you and your friends might wanna rethink your clothes or something." Nick gave a quick glance as he flopped backwards to stare at the ceiling. If this was Nick as a normal 'I'll-try-not-to-be-an-asshole-human-being' then I couldn't be blamed for saying I had a tiny crush on the guy, right? I turned around to sit up so I could see his face. Bandit and Kay were right, it was kind of fun to try figure out what the guy was thinking. He looked up at me, but didn't look away this time as he raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Thanks for the jacket Nick." I smiled a little, but he just looked away and nodded. "Though it does smell kind of bad..."

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwweh!" Kay's voice might as well have been that stupid alarm clock that you want to smack because it scared you awake. "Everyone, wake up!"

There was a collection of disgruntled mumbles as few heads looked up to see what Kay saw. Different reactions could be heard, some not caring, others mimicking Kay.

"It's cold in here, and you little jerks have all blankets." Nick spoke flatly; he was back in asshole-mode, yet again. He stood up and went back to the make shift kitchen behind the librarian's desk and took out breakfast things. "Anyone up for breakfast?"

Maybe not.

* * *

**A/N: I just thought it'd be cute to make Nick a little OOC...well, not much. I think it was, but you can let me know if you review! :D**


	8. Starry Starry Night

**A/N: So I just did the math, which is **_**not**_** my forte, and I now realize that I've aged the survivors wrong. O.O Ro seemed to have aged 2 years while Nick only aged 1; I guess Coach can be 47, and Ellis would be 26, since he already said he was 10 years older than Kay. _' Okay. I messed up. But it's going to stay that way. SORRY if anyone cares! :) Oh, also sorry that my chapters are getting longer, but I'll try fix that sometime, but I write so much, but I gotta take a break since I found out that I forgot about an essay. ):**

* * *

**Chapter Eight: Starry Starry Night**

Nick went about cracking eggs and slapping bacon in a frying pan, not one anyone had used to kill zombies with. Kay wandered over with a white apron and slung it over Nick. It read 'Kiss the Cook'. Nick gave a small look of annoyance but kept it on. He didn't seem to be in the mood to argue. He filled up some plates and left them on the desk. "Breakfast is served."

"Woot! Real food!" Bandit grinned at the pile of bacon that she helped herself from, quite generously.

"Nick...I've taken a real likin' to you at this moment, my man." Coach spoke vaguely as he picked up his plate and took almost half of the bacon.

"Wow...I didn't know you could cook, Nick." Ro smiled at Nick, who looked away from her. She frowned a little, but helped herself anyways without another word.

"Why is there sooo much alcohol left?" Jude stared at the freezer that was way more than half full of bottles and the fridge had two shelves full of beer still, not counting the alcohol in the backpacks salvaged from Frank's house. "Dude, we didn't even make a dent!"

"Oh my god, I wanna die. I'm not gonna drink like that for awhile..." Bandit was already finished eating and had taken to her four blankets on the couch, buried under it. There was a murmur of agreement.

After breakfast, everyone was quiet. Not that awkward quiet, but the quiet nobody was willing to break since they all had a screaming headache. Finally, there were voices that could be heard.

"Oh my _god!_ Never again. Never let me drink that much again!" Leo's muffled voice came from his couch he'd passed out on. His head was buried under his arms and blanket.

"I know! I have that cotton-candy feeling stuck in my head...oh wait...it's more like cotton-candy made of steel wool." I frowned at the ceiling. I wasn't sure if I wanted to eat. It looked good...but not at that moment. I didn't really have a choice since Nick brought two plates over as he came over to sit down too. He'd forgotten the apron he was still wearing.

"Here." Nick's expression was stoic as ever as he kept his stare on me. I felt a little awkward, vulnerable almost, under that unreadable stare. I don't think I ever noticed how green his eyes were. God, I hated myself right there. I've always hated these damned dark eyes; I was always jealous of anyone with lighter coloured eyes; especially green. I sat there with a fork in my mouth for a good minute or so, just staring. Covering up with annoyance always worked for me in these situations.

"What?" I asked with more than a note of annoyance, "Are you just going to watch me eat?"

Nick just raised an eyebrow as he picked at his own plate. "Yeah, but now that you ate some spit, it's less interesting."

"Seriously?" I just shook my head as I examined his face for any tells. I hated that poker face of his, opaque and unveiling, I didn't know if I wanted to eat anymore. Good for me though, I still had that bite in my mouth, so asshole-score number one for me: I spit it in his plate and smirked at him. "Bitch, have it back."

"Oh, come on!" Nick spat those words at me, the poker face dissipating, clearly irritated. "Y'know what? Starve next time. 'Cause that's the last time I'm cooking."

"I _was _a Culinary Arts student before this zombie shit, so don't count on it." I just continued eating anyways. Bandit was right, it was awhile since I ate something that wasn't junk food or processed. I ate a little faster than I would normally, partially because I didn't want any Nick revenge. He was quietly eating around the bit I spat out. "The bacon was a little dry, and the hash browns were kind of burnt."

"Yeah, well. I said you ate _some_ spit. All gone now." Nick gave a brazen grin as he took the plates to the counter. I just frowned at him; clearly he had many years on me playing the asshole game.

"I think I'm gonna get baked, that might help..." Bandit sighed at the pain in her head, not wanting to overreact. She had a marshmallow-y feeling floating around in her head. "Anyone else?"

"Ah...yeah, count me in." Ellis sat beside her on the couch beside the TV, along with Jude and Kay. Those four seemed to get along just fine. I wandered over to sit with them too. "Nice jacket, Rikki."

"Oh why thanks, Ellis. It smells like puke, wanna see?" I offered, but I didn't expect him to actually smell the jacket. He made a face and looked up, nodding. I just laughed a little. My headache was suppressed, since the glass of rum anyways. I was lightly buzzed, since I never really drank rum that often. I was more of a beer person. Well, that's a lie...back in '07; it was a two-six of Captain Morgan for each day of the weekend.

"So you're jus wearin' it 'cause Nick lent it to ya?" Ellis smiled at me, with a glint in his eye. I just chose to smile at Ellis. "Figured as much."

""Whatever." I just pushed aside comments that resembled Ro's. I mean, I knew that they actually meant it, but I wasn't in the mood for playing High School today.

"So...Ro say anything?" Jude asked me as she passed a joint to me. So much for that. I just shook my head, which didn't hurt as much as before. I took a long inhale, thinking of how to answer Ro if she talked to me. I was kind of mad that I was mad at her at all. I don't know, I just never thought of Ro being a bitch...ever. I looked down at the jacket I wore; then again, I never thought Nick could be used in a sentence containing the word 'nice'. Ellis...well, he's exactly as I expected him to be. As for Coach, he was wise and hungry as ever. "Well, she better."

"Why?" I asked, it was her choice, I mean, I could be mad at someone all I want, and that wouldn't change anything. Mad, that was the last feeling I had towards Jeremy before that day. I was mad because he didn't want me to go hang out with his friends, like he didn't trust me around them without him. That was a stupid reason to be mad, now that I think of it. But that was probably because I'd never see Jeremy as himself again.

"Well...whatever then." Jude just shrugged. I guess she knew it was more of a rhetorical question than anything. Nonetheless, Ro came over with a look of apprehension on her face. But once eye contact was made, she couldn't turn around without looking stupid. To make things easier, I stood up and walked towards her, so as not to make anything awkward in the happy little crew of stoners.

... ... ...

"Hey Ro, what's up?" I smiled at her; no point in looking mad. She just shrugged as she sat down on a low desk. I took a seat beside her. "Uh..."

"Yes, Rikki, I remember most of last night. That...um...it wasn't fair to you, I know that." Ro started, not looking at me. Ugh, I hated dealing with girls about this kind of stuff. I mean, I don't care that I'm a girl; it was always annoying to try get along with other girls, growing up with boys and all. I saw what they meant when they said girls are complicated. I didn't see myself differently, because it was true. If I wasn't complicated, I would've been with Jeremy right now. But maybe not with Bandit or her friends, which was the difficult part of 'what if'. "I don't want to blame it on being drunk, and I don't exactly want to apologize either. Because I was saying how I feel, I'm just sorry you had to hear it while I was really drunk."

I nodded, and felt a stare on me. I looked up to see Ro look away as Nick's stare stayed on the two of us talking, sitting on the futon with 'Green Eggs and Ham'. He didn't look like he was actually reading it though. I'm pretty sure he wanted to know what we were talking about, but would never admit it. "Um, yeah...I guess I'm sorry too, for whatever's making you mad. I do want to know what you meant though..."

"Oh, um...well...Look, I've had this thing for Nick for awhile now. I didn't really want to admit it at first, because I'm not used of liking arrogant assholes. It was an off and on sort of thing...sometimes he'd like me other times he wouldn't even look at me." I cringed; I didn't want a personal story. I never knew how to react to them. 'Oh so and so died', I'd be thinking 'so what' while offering false condolences I was always concerned the other person would sense. I don't think I've ever thought of myself as looking out for number one, but thinking things over, it suited how I handled things. I felt that Ro's feelings didn't concern me as I thought they could. Sure she made me mad, but I didn't want to hear what she felt. I realized Ro was still talking. "I just think it's not fair that someone younger comes along and has all his attention."

"What do you mean?" I was kind of confused. I wasn't used of being the person who people were jealous of, so I never really felt like understanding how others handled it.

"Well, for starters; the whole time I've known the guy, he's never once lent me his jacket." Ro just gave a frown at me, and I looked down. I was...startled to say the least. "And do you even look in a mirror? You're gorgeous!"

"Ah...uh..." I tried to find something to say. Goddamn I hated these awkward moments! What the hell was I supposed to say to that? "Who're you kidding?"

"Rikki, you're kidding yourself if you don't think you're pretty. I'm just saying that Nick's noticed it." I looked over at Nick, who was looking rather annoyed with a very chatty and baked Ellis. "I...don't really care though. I mean, I've about had it with his shit anyways...if you want it, go for it."

"Yea-no." I held up my left hand, showing the gold band with a green jade heart embedded in it. It was like she finally noticed the only piece of jewellery I had on. In the background, I could see Nick look away. He turned to Ellis, probably to tell him to shut up.

"Oh! Um...that's an engagement ring, isn't it?" Ro looked a little apologetic at this point. I just nodded. "But...where is he?"

"Dead-ish. I'm not really interested in...whatever." I looked at Ro, and stood up. She just stared at me. "So yeah...glad we had this talk."

* * *

"Hey, Andi, Kay...Oi, Jude. Get over here." I motioned for them to come over; I wanted to get some real clothes. So I needed them. "I wanna get to my car. And go downtown today, let's go get us some real clothes."

"But I have real clothes." Kay looked down at her Bull Shifters shirt. She didn't see anything wrong with it.

"You don't change your clothes once in awhile?" I asked, and Kay looked up again with a look of sudden disgust.

"Ew...didn't think of it that way." Kay wandered over and grabbed a gun and machete. "Oi, you guys! We're gonna go loot some stores for a change of clothes!"

"Anyone wanna come?" I offered an open invitation. It could be easier if there were more of us. Jason and Leo perked up, looking down at their clothes.

"New clothes, now why didn't I think of that these past few years?" Nick rolled his eyes as he looked down at his grimy white pants and at the coat on me.

"You're disgusting." Jude scrunched her nose at the gambler.

"Hey, I wash it when I have the time." Nick frowned at her disgusted face. "Any good men's stores around here?"

"Uhh...there's the dress store that has some pretty nice suits in it." Jude recalled Vanna's Boutique in the middle of town. "Wait, where are we going?"

"Rock 'n' Sole, dude. Best clothes here, but they're so fucking expensive. What better time to get them than in a zombie apocalypse when it's free...sorta." I told them. They just nodded in both excitement and understanding. "And...that Boutique is on the same street as the store we're going to. Any other kinds of clothes?"

"Ooh, I want some shirts like...rock and stuff...anything like that in town?" Ellis perked up and I nodded. "Where?"

"Same store we're going to, Elle." I smiled as he gave a big smile and picked up his gun, "Coming along now?"

"I think we all want new clothes, Rikki. I mean, look at us, we're disgusting." Ro smiled, looking down at her wrinkled, vomit-stained pink shirt. I just nodded as we picked up our weapons. Nick looked at the katana I held, with the AK slung across my back.

"Did you want your gun back?" I asked, as Nick just raised an eyebrow as he took it back. "Well, I'm keeping the sword."

"Cool! Can I use this one?" Bandit grinned as she picked Coach's Combat Rifle, trying to figure out what worked what, and in the process, setting off three shots at Ellis' arm. Coach just gave a hearty laugh as he watched the kid handle the gun poorly. "OH! Sorry dude!"

"OWW! Watch where yer aimin' that thing, man!" Ellis groaned as he held his left arm. He looked at his arm and felt slightly better that the shots had only grazed his bicep. After cleaning the wound he perked up."Okay Canadians, gather 'round. So here's your basics on guns, since getting shot ain't fun, not gonna name anyone," Ellis coughed a rather audible 'Andi' before continuing, "Me 'n' Nick here are gonna go over basic gun handling."

"Why Nick? I mean...you're a hick, no offense, so you'd know lots about guns." Jude asked, making Ellis frown a little at her question.

"Because Nick here's a gambling, conman bonanza...a real bad ass. That's why." I replied putting a hand on the shoulder of the ever annoyed Nick. Ellis just nodded in agreement.

"Oh haha... you're real funny, sweetheart." Nick just rolled his eyes and picked up the AK-47, "Anyone know what gun this is?"

"That, sir, is a 7.62mm AK-47, magazine capacity of 40 with a 400m range." I smiled a little at the face Ellis made. I knew which guns were which, but using them was a different story.

"Holy shit, I'm in love y'all." Ellis joked as he held up a different gun. "What else do you know about guns?"

"5.56mm Combat Rifle, with 3-round bursts for accuracy." I looked at the two men who just stared in disbelief. "Look, just because I'm in a dress doesn't mean I don't game. Or look up cool guns to look at."

"Moving along..." Ro just smiled as the two men remembered what they were supposed to be doing.

"Well, there's your safety, the trigger and your ammo." Nick pointed out each one and showed us how to reload our guns and choose the ammo for each gun. "That's about all I can show you. I don't know much about which gun's which. I prefer the Desert Eagle here."

The two re-showed the rest of us how to reload the guns, where the best place to keep a first aid kit and ammo, and how to not lose control of the guns. Once they were pleased enough that they wouldn't get killed by a gun, we were outside.

"Should we use the van?" I asked, and everyone just looked at me with a nod. "Oh right, we're going to get clothes. I gotta get my coat from my car...maybe I'll take it back here."

... ... ...

We drove to town, which was awkwardly cramped, since everyone was squished in the van and standing with guns. I just hoped no one accidently fired one. We stopped in front of the clothing store. It was really weird, not seeing any zombies; a morning blessing. "Okay...does anyone know how to _successfully_ pick locks?"

Leo just looked at me lopsidedly. Nick walked up to the door, inspecting it. He dug in his pocket and pulled out a thin metal rod and stuck it in the lock. After clicking it around for a minute, the door clicked open.

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" I sighed, looking at the guy in a half suit. "Oh, right, here you go! Don't need it anymore, thanks though. Go crazy everyone!"

Everyone ran into the small store, collecting anything of interest. I was quite content with a few pairs of undergarments, skinny jeans, heavy metal band tees and a few leather jackets. I went crazy on boots and converse, though. Before long, the bed area on the camper was stock full of clothes. Three of us changed into clothes that weren't dresses. I felt much better in pants and a shirt that didn't leave so much of me exposed. Next were Nick's suits. He did choose some jeans and shirts from the store, though.

"Iron Maiden! Good thing you Canadians know a thing or two about music." Ellis smiled as he slipped into an Iron Maiden shirt with a big smile.

Once everyone was changed into comfortable clothes that weren't grimy, we made our way to Vanna's Boutique. Nick picked the lock there too, but there was a setback, an alarm went off. "Shit."

"Okay, here we go." I sighed as I lifted my katana into a ready position. We waited for a minute, and put our guard down a second before we heard the unearthly howls of a horde. "Holy shit!"

"Goddamn, it's getting good!" Nick yelled over the oncoming horde, lifting his gun up and deftly clearing away some zombies ahead of me that I didn't even get to approach.

"DIE!" Bandit screamed as she ran into the middle of the horde, swinging away with the gun and shooting. Everyone else was relatively quiet as we cleared the way into the store. The alarm stopped after ten gruelling minutes of covering our new clothes in grime and blood.

"Oh great." Jude sighed as she looked down at her clothes. "Oh well, lots more clothes where that came from. Hurry up Nick, I wanna go back now."

"I don't know now...none of these really suit me." Nick looked hesitantly at the rack of suits that looked perfectly fine in my opinion.

"Oh come on, woman! We didn't come here for you to say you won't look good in them." I jabbed at the gambler, annoyed that my new clothes were already disgusting to wear because he 'needed' a new suit. "If I say you'll look good in them, will that make you hurry?"

"Oh shut up." Nick just rolled his eyes as he looked through the suits of black, navy and white. Grabbing two of each and different dress shirts, he was careful to make sure they were color coordinated. "Decent enough, for this crappy little town."

"Okay let's go!" Kay proclaimed, smiling under the dark blood smeared on her face. We ran to the semi-safety of the van and drove away.

* * *

I drove to the corner of the street where my car was parked. I was glad to see the navy trunk from where I stopped the van. "Anyone else wanna drive back?"

"OH! Can I drive?" Ellis and Kay asked at the same time. They looked at each other, and without a word, proceeded to play rock-paper-scissors. With Kay as the victor, she quickly took my seat as she stuck her tongue out at Ellis' pouting face. I hopped out of the van, with Bandit, Jude and Ro following me. "See you at home!"

We waved as they left. There was maybe ten or so infected wandering around my car. But we got there without a scratch on ourselves and the car. I almost hugged my car, but hopped in instead. I started the car up, and that's when I heard a Tanks roar. "Shit! Getting out of here!"

"Holy SHIT! Go, go, go!" Bandit yelled as she saw the behemoth race towards the car, but it quickly left the view as Jude stood out of the sun roof my car had and chucked a bile bomb at it. Thousands of zombies raced out of the darkness of the woods, almost instantly, to beat on the bigger zombie. "Dude!"

We were out of there faster than you could read this sentence. Okay, yeah, that's an over exaggeration, but we were gone. We parked hastily in front of the school to see the others rushing the clothes inside. I checked my watch that I left on the driving wheel. We only took an hour. Now what?

Everyone went back to sleep, since there wasn't much to do. But we all woke up not too long after. I had the futon to myself, since Nick had taken a mat before Jude could say anything about him depleting her bed stack. I remembered what Leo was talking about the night before, and I wanted to know more. So as soon as he woke up, I half ran over to talk to him.

"So, Leo, what were you talking about last night?" I asked. He looked at me with a look of confusion. "Do you even remember?"

He shook his head.

"You were talking about the Illuminati and New World Order." I spoke a little slowly, gauging how he reacted. He looked a little surprised if anything.

"Oh yeah...I think..." Leo just shrugged. "I guess I let out the secret too early. I'm pretty sure it was the government and the Illuminati behind all of this. I mean, they've had knowledge about the Green Flu for three years now and didn't do anything to stop it. One thing's for sure, they've set up safe zones in Ontario."

"Are. You. Serious... Ontario? How the hell are we supposed to get there?" I just looked at the nerdy guy who looked down at his feet. "Oh...wait...you mean we don't?"

"I didn't say that. I just know that the safe zones are government regulated and really tricky to pinpoint where they are. We have two choices basically. Stay here and wait to die, or hold out as long as possible here and then leave towards Ontario." Leo just lowered his head a little.

"Then what?" I asked.

"Hope they let us in their towns." Leo didn't get into any further detail, which bothered me.

"Well, we can't do anything about the whole Illuminati thing? I mean, you're the dork here, you can figure something out, right?" I asked, a little freaked at the reality of our situation. Stay and die or leave to die somewhere else in the country, hoping we'll make it somewhere safe. That sounded awfully familiar to a particular game.

"Well, yes. That's what I've been doing these past days. I just need more time. I can let you know whenever I think I have something." Leo smiled slightly as I nodded.

"Do I tell them?" I asked, gesturing at the group that were playing a round of Go Fish and laughing now and then. Leo shook his head, and I understood. "Yeah...let's not wreck their oddly placed happiness for the time being. So how much time do you figure?"

"My estimation would be two to three weeks. I mean, we're talking about New World Order. I gotta find some loopholes in getting in. I'll...do something to figure out how to differ a carrier from immune people." Leo sighed, it looked like he was used of the challenge, but he looked tired.

"How long have you been on this?" I asked, noticing how tired Leo looked for however old he was. He couldn't be older than me, even though he was a lot taller.

"A week or so now. Besides last night, pretty much non-stop." Leo smiled tiredly, "I'll talk about it more when I know more. I think I'll tell the group soon though. I mean, they have to know sooner or later."

* * *

It was dark out and I wanted to see the stars. I wandered out of the room, holding the katana and two pistols tucked into my newly acquired studded belt. Ellis noticed I left the room and poked his head out of the door.

"Hey, Rikki? Where ya goin'?" He inquired. I looked at him and pointed up.

"I wanna look at some stars...I'm tired of staying in all the time. Wanna come?" I offered at the smiling guy who nodded, he turned back and told the group.

"Hey guys! Me 'n' Rikki are gonna go look at sum stars, anyone wanna come?" Ellis called over to the rest of the group. Inevitably, Kay, Jude and Bandit could be heard agreeing, the four of them were becoming inseparable. "Okay, bring sum guns just in case."

... ... ...

"Holy shit, I've missed the night sky." I sighed as I looked up to see stars scattered across the sky above like a big piece of glittery black velvet. I heard the other girls sigh and take a deep breath. I loved autumn nights, and the darkness of the world around the school was both exhilarating because we could see ALL the stars, something that was never really possible unless you were camping or during a power outage, it was also creepy, since there was always a chance something could happen up here. I placed the katana down and sat there, and pulled my knees close, never once looking away from the sky. I felt the other four sitting close by, just talking.

"I don't think the others were too happy we left." Ellis frowned, "Somethin' about 'could be dangerous or all that."

"Pffft, who're they kidding? You're Ellis the Badass Zombie Killin' Machine!" Kay proclaimed, smiling broadly at Ellis while absently gazing at the sky. Ellis grinned back, and looked up too. "You're right, Rikki. It is nice to look at the night sky again."

"Yeah Elle, I mean not everyone can fight zombies across a country and make it anywhere." Jude looked awed at the mere thought. "I mean, I feel lucky to be alive right now, and we're still in town!"

"So Ellis, where exactly in Georgia are you from?" I asked, feeling awkward that the four were always talking and I was always quiet.

"Savannah, Georgia. Born 'n' raised!" Ellis looked over with his never faltering smile. "So what was with that Nick thing this morning?"

"Oh, that...I just kind of woke up and he was there." I looked at the others, and noticed Ellis and Kay look away with a badly hidden smile. "You know, it's weird, I remember pretty much everything of what I did. I know that I passed out on my own."

I heard a small, suppressed giggle from Kay, supported by Ellis.

"I knew it." I just shook my head as the two burst into a fit of laughter.

"It was too good to pass up, dude!" Kay smiled at me, "Besides, it was sooo cute!"

"Like the two of you dancing? And Ellis being TOTALLY disappointed that you're ten years younger?" I countered, looking at a rather embarrassed Kay. "That's okay though, I mean if it's okay for Nick to like me somehow, then it's okay for the two of you to get it over with and fuck, okay? Okay."

"Shut up, Rikki." Kay frowned in embarrassment, along with Ellis looking down at his feet. "You're an ass like Nick, you know that?"

"Hey, I'm not an ass." I frowned a little, being compared to Nick. "I have feelings."

"FOR NICK! Oh!" Ellis spurt in and I looked him, a little more annoyed than I would've liked to. "Hey, you walked into it."

"See, see? You have that same look thing he does." Jude pointed at my face while Bandit and Kay giggled and Ellis nodded in agreement.

"Oh shut up." I gave up while remembering why I didn't speak up much, and put my chin on my arms as I continued to look at the sky. "Y'all love me anyways, you jerks."

"Now that's true." Bandit smiled at me. "I mean, if it weren't for you, I think the three of us would be dead or at a loss of what to do then die."

"Not true. You and Kay are like...pros at Black Ops. Face it. We were ready for this since day one." I spoke the truth, everyday, whether we were joking or not, the four of us would be gaming on anything zombie related, ready for the supposedly impossible day of a zombie apocalypse. The other three just nodded with a small grin. "Just sucks that we couldn't save everyone..."

"Yeah..." Bandit sighed, "I think I've had enough fresh air. I wanna go...um...do something. Dunno what."

"Okay, see you inside then." I replied softly, I wasn't sure if she was okay. Jude and Kay followed at her footsteps. I looked at Ellis a little questioningly. "You're not going inside? Aren't you like, joined at the hips with them?"

"Aren't you?" Ellis smiled a little at me, fiddling with his pistols absently.

"Touché, Elle." I smiled back, and returned my stare upwards. It was beginning to be a little chilly, but nothing compared to the winter that was a short few weeks away. The weather was strange here, it would be fall one day, but then blazing hot, like summer won't go anywhere without a fight.

"Well, y'know I would go inside, but it ain't right to leave a lady on her own in the dark." Ellis slouched against the cold, steel wall of the stairway and looked upwards. "Sure is pretty out here, I'll admit."

"Getting used of Canada, I see." I smiled a little at Ellis, who just shrugged. "It's not that bad here, and I haven't been out of Canada, so I can't judge the US like I can with the people. I mean, have you ever been to Canada until now?"

"'Fraid not. Up until two years ago, I ain't never been outta Georgia." Ellis kept his stare on the sky, with a look of hidden amazement. "Shame too, I mean, I really wish I did more travelling before this whole deal."

"Yeah..." We sat there in a peaceful quiet of thought, but a collection of howling and moaning approaching was inevitably bound to break the silence. Nails scraping the steel wall could be heard, and up until then, I forgot about the possibility of zombies climbing walls with no grip. In a split second, Ellis pulled me up and dragged me in the building. "Well, best be getting back, huh?"

"Yeeup, before them zombies come and 'eat our brains'." Ellis air quoted and smiled a little too happily for someone in the middle of the end of the world. We closed the metal door and rushed down the stairs as he continued to speak. "Hey, maybe that's what we could do...I mean, I _do_ sort've miss those silly zombie movies."

* * *

**A/N: YAY! I'm not really going anywhere just yet because I wanna focus on what the survivors do and how they interact with one another. Also to have some foresight on what the plans are and such. :) Don't forget, I'm a take a break from writing, but I have the outline already planned so it won't take me too long to get going again during Christmas Break. **

**R&R! :D**


	9. Tipsy

**A/N: OMG! The pairings are WAYY more obvious in this chapter. Just because. :) R&R! And thanks ya'll who have already reviewed! They keep me writing even though I really should get on those essays of mine! D:**

* * *

**Chapter Nine: Tipsy**

A week later, it was really hot, hot enough for short-shorts and tank tops, with normal shoes in case we needed to run back inside, and still be too hot. Yet again, I found that I wished I was a guy, I mean, I could've just taken off my shirt too, but it would attract unwanted attention. Not that the short-shorts didn't already get enough attention; Ellis shifted his hat for a few moments to slip his shirt off when he saw us girls come on the roof top. I felt a little self-conscious about my acid-washed shorts and white Sex Pistols tank top; it revealed me too much.

"Ho-lee guacamole! Goddamn you girls look fine today!" Ellis smirked flirtatiously, while Nick smirked in an untold agreement from behind a pair of aviator-style sunglasses. He was sitting, shirtless, on one of the beach chairs he managed to find a few days earlier. At that point, I decided asking questions were out of the question, since everything we needed was conveniently placed around when we needed it. For example, the Super Soakers acquired from the Gym. I pulled it from behind my back and chased Ellis around with it, laughing while he complained about it being too cold. "Hey hey! Man, it's cold now. Look, my nipples are yelling at you now."

"Oh good grief." I smiled while shaking my head, and placed the water gun down. Dumb move. My back was soaked in a matter of seconds. I thought it was empty. Stupid Super Soakers and their big chambers for water.

"Ha! Now they're laughin' at you." Ellis shook his chest a little to pantomime Kelis? I'm guessing here. He smelled baked as hell.

"You just wanna show off your muscles, hey Elle?" Jude smirked a little at both his brainlessness and shirtless-ness. Sometimes even she felt smart in comparison. Ellis replied by simply flexing and making macho faces, which earned a water balloon in the face, courtesy of Kay. Surprised, Ellis retaliated by chasing her around. Nick was suppressing some coughs from his seat, making me curious, so I looked over to see Nick with a small metal pipe and a face that looked annoyed that I noticed.

"I think the sun's getting' to your heads." Coach spoke absently while relaxing with a tall glass of ice tea and lying down on a towel in the shade of the wall. I chuckled a little and wandered over to the empty row of beach chairs and took the one beside Jason, who was chattering happily to Leo, who was just nodding every now and then. Ro, Jude, Kay, Bandit and Ellis were throwing water balloons at one another, laughing away. No one seemed to care that there was zombies off in the distance, probably negotiating whether it was worth it to run across the lot in the hot sun. I mean, there were guns lying around just in case though. I wondered why the zombies didn't do much in the sun, I mean, in Left 4 Dead they ran around day and night. Maybe it was because they were used of the hot Georgia sun as humans. Rupertites weren't as good with the sun.

"I didn't think it got this hot in the North." Jason commented blandly, handing me a joint he must have just started. "Hey, what's up?"

"The temperature. It's never this hot, I mean, I don't remember the last time I had to dress like this and _still_ be fucking hot anyways." I complained, it was true too. Jason just giggled a little. "What?"

"This is normal for me, I mean, in Prince George, the temps always around forty something degrees." Jason commented, looking at the empty sky.

"That sounds kind of cold there, Jay." Nick commented from a few seats down, his head flopped on his shoulder looking lazily over at us over his sunglasses.

"We use Celsius here, Nicky...dumb American." I shook my head sarcastically, smiling at how annoyed it made Nick. He just gave a small frown and returned his gaze upwards. I looked up, and realised that I hadn't seen or heard any sort of wild life. Not even a bird. Wait, do bugs count? "Where'd all the animals go?"

"Hey yeah! The hell? I dunno...maybe-" Jason looked bewildered just as a water balloon smacked across his face and splashed on me and Leo's keyboard. Jason stood up and ran towards the water war. "Hey! The hell! Yeah, it's war!"

"You moron! You blue screened me! Argh..." Leo looked annoyed, which was a face that didn't suit him, at Ellis who just smiled goofily. I guess _no one_ could stay mad when Ellis smiled like that. It was too hot for converse, so I slipped them off. I heard more coughing from Nick's direction, and saw a joint hanging out of his mouth. I wandered over there, since Leo didn't talk much when he was on his laptop, which was rebooted. Besides, it was better that he worked on whatever he needed to. I kind of wanted to help, but last time I asked, he just nodded like he was listening. I guess he didn't need the help. I looked down at the gambler who was contently rolling the joint between his lips. He looked up with a small grin.

"I didn't know you smoke weed Nick." I raised an eyebrow as I sat down by the shirtless gambler. He just smiled as a small cough escaped, or maybe it was a laugh, I don't know. He just shrugged.

"And I didn't know the sky was blue!" He seemed pretty baked already as he threw his hands up in exaggerated sarcasm, which made his sunglasses slide down awkwardly, barely hanging from his ears. He smelled like alcohol. "Besides, I thought everyone smokes weed."

"You never smoke weed with us though." I just shrugged, "So I didn't know."

"You didn't ask." Nick grinned, readjusting the sun glasses and roached the joint on his moist glass of rum from the ground beside him. Alcohol and weed in the afternoon was my lifestyle on the weekends at college. Not smart, but all I was doing was cooking and some reviews and tests. Otherwise, I had nothing to do besides hang out with Zee and a few college friends. I wanted to have a glass of some ice cold rum, straight. There was a cooler underneath Nick's chair, the kind kids use for sports days to dispense juice and worked like those weird cups that you could put in the freezer and have ice without actually putting in ice. I don't know what they're called, but Nick must've filled it up with alcohol.

"Hey, what's in the cooler, Nick?" I asked, gesturing at the cooler. There were a few other glasses under there too.

"Dark rum." Nick nodded a little as he sat back, "Ice cold dark rum. You Canadians have a good taste in rum; Captain Morgan's the way to go."

"Isn't it?" I smiled as I helped myself to a glass and a few quick gulps of the cold alcohol. I looked down at myself, feeling awkward yet again. The only time I had such little clothing on were bedtimes and summer vacations with relatives. Never people I didn't know. I felt a little examined and looked up to see Nick pushing his glasses up again with a small smirk in place. "What?"

"That's your favourite question, isn't it?" Nick grinned a little, and I was starting to wonder how much he'd drunk and how much weed he'd smoked. He was really out of place with his new friendliness. "Ahh, I was just thinking about you Canadian girls...the rumours were true, they always look older than they are...but not like the whole crack-head eighteen year old that looks forty or anything."

"Huh?" I made a face, was he hitting on me? "That's supposed to mean..."

"You look good for a nineteen year old." Nick grinned, readjusting how he was sitting. His eyebrows shot up from behind his sunglasses, like he realized what he'd said.

"Oh, well...you don't look that bad for an old guy." I smiled as I tipped my drink towards him, like a toast sort of. He scowled and made a noise that I can't really describe, which everyone seemed to have heard, since all the eyes were on Nick for a second.

"I'm _not_ that old." Nick pouted and took a big drink, finishing his cup and refilling it.

"Oh cool! Nick brought up the rum!" Jude smiled at the cooler, just knowing the smell as she got closer.

"Nice and cold." Nick held up his glass and smiled up at the group, who all took a small step back at his smile. "What?"

"You're smiling...that's not good." Kay commented, with the rest of the group nodding a little. "What did you do to it?"

"Nothing! What, I can't smile now?" Nick complained, "I can't compliment, smile or be allowed to be a human. Great."

"He's a little drunk..." I explained; which released the small tension rising from the group. Coach and Leo just chuckled from the corners of the roof. "Help yourselves."

"Yeah, you're _welcome_... I only got it up here." Nick muttered as people reached under his chair. He realized he was surrounded by dripping wet people, he scowled. "Hey, you can take it out from under my ass anytime now."

* * *

"And then she was all like: I'm sooo sorry Andi, I didn't mean to! I was sooo drunk last night, I couldn't help it he likes me more than you!" Bandit was mimicking her past friend, Forrest. We were all just lazing around on chairs that were smashed up together so we could lie on it like it was a big mattress. It was pretty fun actually; it reminded me of my high school days with my friends; mostly guys. And Forrest decided she was better friends than I was with them. I only grew up with those guys, and I didn't give them blowjobs for them to call me their friend. Besides, they were all pretty vocal about her sluttiness when she wasn't around and how annoying she was when there wasn't a dick in her mouth to keep her quiet. Ro, ironically, was the first to react to Bandit's story.

"Oh my _god_, she did not!" Ro put her hands to her mouth in surprise. "So she fucked the guy you liked? Some friend."

"Yeah Ro, some friend." Kay gave a small glare at Ro, who looked surprised then annoyed. But then Kay just smiled, so no one could tell if she was joking or not. "Yeah, and then she tried to tell Andi to just go for him anyways."

"Yeah...I didn't hang out with her much after that, she was too different from her cool old self by then." Bandit sighed, taking a drink from her cup.

Ahh, the wonders of reminiscing and gossip. Only when I'm drunk will I stoop that low to chatter mindlessly with any social group. It was fun, even if I wasn't really telling any stories like Ellis or Kay. I did have loads of complaining stories, but those got annoying really fast. Kay was sitting between Ellis' legs sort of; his legs went around her back and under her legs so she could still face us. Jason had his head on Bandit's lap and his legs flopped lazily over Leo's shins. Jude was scrunched up beside Leo with her knees pressed against Bandit's arm. I was lazily playing with Ro's hair while she rested her head on Nick's shin. I was squished between Nick and Leo, so to make things less squishy, I put my legs over Nick's so I could braid Ro's hair more easily. It was comfy over all. Coach was being board with the archery set he found in the very back of the equipment room, silently taking out zombies that got too close, while sipping on his glass of rum. Everyone seemed contently drunk.

"Hey...let's play I Never or something..." Jude smiled; I knew this game of hers. She liked to start off with shy things then eventually move in on the cute guy she had her eyes on. I shrugged in agreement, since there wasn't much to do anyways. The feeling was mutual. "Okay, I'll start, but no fingers just drink if you've done whatever was said...clear right?"

"Right." I affirmed Jude as everyone nodded, "Coach, wanna come over for a bit?"

Coach just shook his head, it must've been awkward for him; I mean he was older than Nick who already weirded out since he was always included with the teenagers. Same with Ro and Ellis, but naturally, Ellis belonged there.

"Okay, well...I never got to go to Amsterdam." Jude pouted as me and Nick took a drink. Summer vacation with Jeremy and Zee in Amsterdam for the Cannabis Cup, good times then. "You guys suck. Leo?"

"Oh, um...I never expected a zombie apocalypse." Leo looked upwards thoughtfully as I drank again with Kay, Bandit and Jude. Everyone looked a little questioningly. "Interesting..."

"I never...hmm...I never got to see Def Leppard live." I sighed, seriously wishing I was born to be a teenager in the 80's, and then I wouldn't give a damn if I was dying in the twenty-first century or not. Nick, Coach and Ellis drank. "Bastards."

"I never thought I'd be in Canada." Nick commented as Ro, Ellis and Coach drank. "Stupid place anyways; get judged as a pedophile and can't smile here..."

"I never got Prince Charming." Ro sighed as all the other girls drank besides me. "Aww, you lucky girl...hey, can we get a name to that ring you're wearing?"

Somehow, this was really interesting to everyone. I looked down at my hand and frowned a little. I hated feeling like this; crappy and alone, especially when I wasn't alone. I sighed and relented. "Jeremy."

"Aww...you poor girl." Ro sighed softly, "How was he? Nice, jerk...c'mon girl, spill it."

"But we're playing a game right now." I tried to evade the topic. Didn't work.

"It's a social game, there's no time limit." Ro smiled, it wasn't like she was asking me to tell my whole life to her.

"Yeah, he was...sweet, kind and caring. But he was a guy, so he'd be and ass sometimes." I smiled at the memories brought about, but stopped when I felt legs shifting under mine. Nick looked really uncomfortable. I shook my head, "Doesn't matter now."

"Was he...y'know...good in bed?" Ro smiled slyly; I was yelling a constant stream of curses at her in my head, it was satisfying.

"Ro! Not called for." I sighed as she giggled away, "Yeah, moving on."

"I never got with a guy older than me by five or more years." Kay grinned at the girls, waiting to see who'd drink first. Ro did, but so did Jude. Ashamed, I did too, but regretted it when everyone looked at me then to Nick. "I KNEW IT!"

"Oh my god, NO! It was three years ago, his name was Luke and he was an old co-worker of mine. So there." I frowned, from behind my hand that automatically found its way to my forehead, at Kay who was instantly disappointed. "Yeah...how about no more sex related things?"

"How about, grow some balls and man up for a bit Rikki!" Jude grinned evilly as she looked at Ellis. "Go!"

"I never had a girlfriend." Ellis looked down; almost in shame while all the guys drank, including Jude. "Wait, what?"

"Phase. Hormones...at least I know I'm not bi like I thought I was..." Jude cringed at her own honesty. I had to laugh, it was funny. "Oh shut up."

"Hey...I jus thoughta something...Rikki...like...Rikki Rockett?" Ellis asked, referring to Def Leppard's drummer. I nodded. "Man that is so cool!"

"I never...I never had to fight zombies in real life until this year." Bandit smiled at the survivors who drank at the same time. "Heh heh...I still can't believe you got all the way up here, dudes."

"I never wanna do coke again." Jason looked up at Bandit, who smiled. I could already tell what was going on; he was going to spill out personal stuff to reassure everyone, especially Bandit, that he was a good guy. No one drank. "Good, drugs are bad...want some weed?"

"Amen to that!" Ellis grinned as he took the joint out of Jason's mouth and lit it himself, chuckling away at the face Jason made.

"It's okay, virgin." Jay smiled lopsidedly at Ellis, who just went red.

"Hey! I didn't say I was virgin!" Ellis huffed smoke in his face, with his trademark pout in place.

"Oh...I see..." Jason giggled away as everyone else seemed to clue in. "Is that why you two have 'Bros' tattooed on your arms?"

Everyone burst out laughing at this point with Nick and Ellis looking really annoyed. Ellis grabbed Kay's waist and held her close, disregarding her startled look. "Yeah, I see what you mean, Nick...No! I'M NOT GAY! For the last flippin' out time, Christians aren't supposed ta be gay! Arrgh...you guys kin all suck it, especially you, girl."

"Um...yea thanks..." Kay was bright red and it hit me; she was never in a relationship, let alone kissed a guy. I had to laugh at how embarrassed she was. Ellis just grinned as he placed his hand on her knee.

"Blonde's your colour, Elle." Nick commented as he took a drink from my cup, which I looked at and I was going to ask why, but he just continued. "Well, there's no more in the cooler and I'm not going all the way down stairs for one drink."

"Is anyone else getting cold?" Kay rubbed her arms a little while slightly shivering. Everyone just shook their heads as she shrugged. Ellis pulled her close, which made her blush again.

"Honey, I'll keep you warm." Ellis was probably drunk by now and he was really starting to flirt it up with Kay. He was pretty impressionable when it came to girls, observing with the whole Zoey thing. Kay didn't seem to mind, she was just shy when it came to guys.

"I never stabbed a friend in the back." Jude continued the game as she looked around as Ro, Nick and Ellis drank. "Wow, you all suck, what'd you do?"

"I literally stabbed my buddy Keith with a dart, I mean I didn' mean to, but you should never stand in front of a dart board." Ellis explained in his manner, as if that explained everything. Everyone chuckled as we looked at the other two.

"I ditched my best friend in Seattle on purpose. She slept with my boyfriend so I let them be together in a different city. Very worth it." Ro smiled slyly as she took a small sip from her cup. "How about you Nick?"

"Oh...I framed an old buddy of mine for an armed robbery in Ohio." Nick shrugged. No one laughed but me; hey I thought it was funny, I mean I don't think I'd ever do that but it was funny how he explained it, like it was no big deal. "What?"

"That's not cool, Nick." Ellis' eyebrows weren't visible since they were under the bill of his hat. Nick just shrugged. "Man, it's your call."

"And I made it, no big deal." Nick readjusted himself. "See, now this is why I don't tell my life story like you people do."

"We never ask..." I commented, using his words against him.

"Yeah Nick, what if we want to ask now?" Kay looked interested, which made the rest of us interested. "See, looks like we wanna hear your stories."

"Yeah! I never knew any criminals in person." I tried to look interested, I mean I was, but my face had a hard time coinciding with my thoughts. Nick shifted again and shook his head.

"No way...I don't want to." Nick shifted a little more, like he was ready to leave the group at any given moment. He gestured at the other three survivors, "I mean, I didn't even tell them."

"Yeah, hey that's not fair Nick...y'know jus about everything about us. It's your turn now." Ellis gestured at Nick as he spoke, making everyone examine the gambler. "That or we kin jus guess at the things you've done; you'd get real drunk and spill e'rything anyways. Or, I kin jus ask the first question: Why'd you stick with us this whole time if you hate us?"

Now that was interesting. Nick gave a small frown as he readjusted himself again while his green eyes were hidden behind his sunglasses. It was still broad daylight, but the sun was trying to cool off. He cleared his throat and took another drink from my cup.

"Well, I don't _hate_ you all, it's just...y'know what? I'll be short and sweet about it all. A lifetime of crime and trying to stay outta jail taught me the two things I lived by before I met you three." Nick gestured at Ellis, Ro and Coach, who was sitting down with us by then, probably interested in Nick's story. "Don't trust anyone and look out for number one. But when I got stuck in that hick hell-hole with you guys, I kinda had to break those rules of mine...but hey, it's not like I'm not used of breaking rules, right?"

"What kind of crime? I mean, I'm just wondering..." Kay inquired, looking rather interested.

"All sorts of bad things..." Nick was trying to avoid getting any further into it.

"Robbery, fraud, illegal gambling, murder, rape...tell me if I'm close...pedo-" Kay got a shoe chucked at her, "Hey! I said tell me when I was right."

"Gambling yes, fraud and robbery yeah. But there was no rape or children involved." Nick muttered; unimpressed with the mood his story was creating.

"Murder?" I asked, quite intrigued with the conman, "You didn't say anything about that."

"..."

"You've killed _people_?" Ellis looked dumbfounded as he looked down at the gothic-type word scribbled across his left bicep.

"Not on purpose." Nick's glasses hid the expression underneath them completely. "It was out of self-defence if anything."

"For what?" I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable.

"Some people found me before I could ditch town: I owed people, I slept with so-n-so, I ruined their life...they were going to kill me, so I killed them first; only three people, really..." I could tell Nick looked away. Everyone was silent. "I didn't mean to..."

"Wow...and _I'm_ the mood killer." I sighed, unsure of what to do. Sometimes, I just don't think of people's feelings; Nick kicked my legs off, which let Ro's head hit the cushion of the chair, stood up and walked swiftly to the door to the stairs, slamming the door as he stomped down the stairs. The slam made us all jump a little, since that was the loudest noise in awhile. "Ohhkay then..."

"Rikki!" Ro looked mortified. I understood what I did wrong; I guess big-bad-Nick did have some humanity under the arrogance he normally showed. Then again, 'pissed off' falls under arrogance. "Hun, how would _you_ feel if someone called you a mood killer after telling your life story? He's _never_ told us those things..."

"Yeah, Rikki...that wasn't too cool of you." Ellis' face was blank as he blinked a few times to regain his normal features. "Go apologize, dude! Seriously!"

"I- I don't mean to sound like an ass, it just comes out that way sometimes. And I _do_ get called a mood killer when I speak...so there." I looked at the group who seemed unanimous about me going to apologize. I stood up, and the world started to spin erratically, despite this I finished my cup of rum. "Okay, okay..."

* * *

Everyone was murmuring, but then it was almost back to normal once the door closed behind me. Everyone was too drunk again. Pitch black engulfed me as I stepped unsteadily down four steps. "Shit it's dark in here."

I wandered carefully down the stairs and found the hallway was slightly brighter. It was kind of blurry now and then, but I found my way to the library and with some trouble, I removed the metal pipe that kept the door locked and crept in. I heard some muffled yelling in the Gym and ran in there; Nick was gagging as he tried to pry the grip of a smoker that found its way into the Gym. "Hey!"

I picked up the fallen magnum and shot twice, with the loud pop and unbearable green smoke clouding up the area. Nick was gasping for breath on the floor, so I dragged him away from the smoke. "Thought...thought I was a goner."

"Yeah well, you're too stubborn to die just yet." I picked up a med-kit that was lying nearby and went back to Nick, who was just staring at the ceiling. I could see a few lacerations on his arms and chest, nothing a good cleaning and butterfly band-aids couldn't fix. "Are you okay?"

Nick just groaned as he looked up at me, "Peachy keen. No, it's okay...I can do it myself."

"Just don't move..." I instructed, ignoring his comment, while I began to dab at the wounds with an alcohol-soaked rag. He shrunk back a little, but I persisted anyways. Relenting, he sighed as he sat up, disregarding my advice but didn't move much after he sat up. "See, now this is why you won't leave us, hey? It's easier to keep looking out for number one when there's a little help to keep you alive, isn't it?"

"Y'know, I _did_ mention breaking my own rules, didn't I?" Nick looked right at me, something glinting in the back of his eyes. He was still drunk as hell though. "Trust is asking a lot these days, and since you weirdos haven't tried to kill us so far, I think it's safe to assume you're all trustworthy enough."

"Well, honestly, I wasn't going to come down here at all." I admitted; I was just going to go find something to do, since I figured Nick would be too mad to talk anyways. Nick just shrugged as I started putting on the band-aids. "But those guys made me come and apologize. So...yeah it sounded like I was being a bitch, but I really wasn't trying to be."

"No, don't bother. It wasn't you that pissed me off..." Nick shrugged a little then looked back up at me, "I...I guess I'm still trying to figure out why I'm still alive, y'know? I mean...aren't all the 'sinners' and shit like that supposed to be gone by now?"

"Well...you're not _mad_ that you're still alive right?" I was dressing the wounds with linen, to keep out whatever. I felt a little...warm...while wrapping it around his chest. Nick remained quiet. "So, how come you can talk to me when no one else can hear you be civil?"

"Don't know. I just...well..." Nick looked like he was arguing with himself, but then continued after a big sigh. "I just wanna know why I'm getting this second chance...you know...friends and all that warm and fuzzy crap."

"Maybe...maybe you never wanted to...well...whatever you did. Think of it this way, if you weren't in Savannah to do what you do, you'd never have met Ro, Coach or Ellis...and probably us too." I felt a little better that he wasn't pissed off to the extreme. I pulled him up to his feet, "Do you even feel like talking about it?"

"Maybe over a drink...I'm none too impressed with that thing getting in." Nick kicked the smoker's limp body as he shoved his hands in his shorts pockets and walked over to the change room doors. "Uh...thanks...for coming down here...if I didn't drop my gun I wouldn't have needed help...at least I don't think so."

We sat down at the table after grabbing a bottle of rum from the freezer and two glasses. "So...is this the whole 'sinner becomes a saint' thing you wanna avoid or are you just drunk?"

"Well, I wouldn't say saint. And yeah, I feel pretty drunk." Nick just shrugged and lit up a smoke, passing me one too. "I dunno, it's weird really. One moment I wish I never met you guys, another I'm glad I'm not alone in this god-forsaken world we live in. Not that it wasn't like that before."

"So...you're not mad at me, right?" I asked, just to make sure. He shook his head. "Are you annoyed with me? I could leave you to whatever you came down here to do..."

"Nah...I think I've surpassed the annoyed quota for the rest of my life, at least after three years with _Ellis_ and his mindless word diarrhoea." I had to giggle at that, I knew he liked having Ellis around just as much as the rest of us; he just had troubles coming to terms with it. He fiddled with the bottle cap and looked up at me. "Why...did you want to go?"

"No I just thought...well...never mind." I shrugged, not knowing what to talk about besides the recent news. "So...you're really a criminal? Like...hard-jail time or whatever?"

"Jail was easy...just got real boring after a year...so...I left." Nick shrugged a little too casually, but it didn't matter. "Took a suit from a store that left the door unlocked... ditched the orange jumpsuit and ditched the state."

"Well...somehow, I'm not as surprised anymore. You...never seemed right to begin with." I shrugged, looking at Nick's green eyes that seemed to be gauging me somehow. I don't know. "Not like...well...actually I don't know what I didn't mean..."

Nick chuckled a little and smirked at me, blinking slowly as he took another gulp of his cup. This excessive drinking was not on anyone's side. I heard the loud laughter that could've easily been mistaken for a horde of jockeys. "Well, looks like we got company..."

Ellis and Kay were holding hands and I felt a little left out for a moment, since everyone stopped for a second before filing in completely. The girls ran to me and hugged me. "OH MY GOD I THOUGHT HE KILLED YOU!"

"Was that necessary?" I asked a falsely hysterical Bandit, who burst into a fit of laughter as they let go of me.

"No, but it was fun to say." Bandit wandered over to the freezer and took out a bottle of vodka, pouring everyone drinks. "There's enough alcohol for another week if we keep drinking like this...otherwise, we still have a shit tonne of whiskey left, some vodka, and one bottle of Captain left."

"OH MY GOD THAT IS MINE!" I yelled over the group before anyone could get the sentence out audibly. Everyone frowned as I smiled and went back to my cup of rum. "It's _my_ rum. So...uh...you guys."

"I have a girlfriend now!" Ellis smirked in triumph as he held Kay close, Jude and Leo had their arms around each other while sitting on a bean bag chair. I had a feeling it was going to be an awkward night. I forgot about that part of high school; fun drunken days, awkward-drunken-make-out-city nights. Within a few minutes, I was proved right. Looking away from the two couples, I stood up and went to go sit down with Jason and Bandit, who were sharing a joint.

"Hey!" Bandit grinned up at me while scooting over towards Jason to make room for me. I had a feeling something happened up there with Bandit that I wasn't getting in on. "So...I guess you two made up?"

"Huh?" I asked my little sister, when she smiled like that she was always suggestive. She nodded over to Nick, who was smiling as he talked to Coach about something and actually laughed at something Coach was re-enacting.

"He hasn't smiled so much...just sayin'." Bandit giggled with Jason, who nodded. "So...how was he?"

"You know what? I'm just gonna ignore that, you're drunk. Make out with Jason already." I jabbed at Bandit, who went red with angered embarrassment. She stuck her tongue out at me as I stood up. Maybe I'd try getting on better terms with Ro, since my friends were busy with guys. "Whatever, I'll leave you two lovebirds to it then..."

* * *

Within twenty or so minutes my theory of a fun day, awkward night was affirmed. I don't know if I want to know where Jude and Leo ended up, Kay and Ellis were nowhere to be seen, and I could barely see Bandit under Jason...at least they had their clothes on.

"So basically, you were mad at Jeremy before this whole thing and you were supposed to be married today?" Ro and I were finishing the bottle Nick took out, while he and Coach were talking over a game of blackjack a few tables down. I nodded, taking a long swig of my tall glass, leaving almost nothing behind. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't find it in myself to start bawling in front of Ro. It was a good day, and I didn't want to spoil anything because I was supposed to be married to my high school sweetheart by now. "You know what we need? A girls' night. We'll camp out in the Gym later, no boys allowed. How's that sound?"

"Fun, actually." I smiled as I thought about girls' nights a month beforehand, when I was having second thoughts about getting married so early in life. I laughed, actually, at the thought of life. I wasn't exactly too keen on the whole cross country trip with winter getting ready to roll around the corner in the few short weeks. In Rupert, it liked to be fall for a week or two then it plopped snow and dropped to below freezing temperatures. But a girls' night with a new addition sounded fun. "Ohh, I got some new make-up from that store we went to. We could always try it out or something."

"_Make-up_? You have make-up! My god girl, I don't know why I never thought of getting some new eyeliner!" Ro smiled as she threw her head back in a gentle laugh. We were reminiscing about anything that came to mind when an inconvenient urge came over me. "We'll just wait for the other girls to get back here, then we can set up the Gym!"

"Hold that thought! Nature calls, m'dear!" I grinned at her a little, embarrassed at the tingly feeling of almost pissing myself.

"Uh okay then, Charmer." Ro's voice faded a little as she went over to Coach who looked like he was waiting for Nick to return. Music was playing, it sounded like Brokencyde, but I don't recall when anyone put it on. I really needed to piss, so I ran to the nearest bathroom. If the laws of social protocol would allow it, I would've gladly pissed my pants. Rather take on the challenge of hassling and fiddling with my pants button and fall in the toilet, since the seat was up. Ugh, I was in the boys' room. That's why it smelled bad. I heard the toilet flush beside me. Great.

"What the...?" Nick looked a little surprised, probably because he was used of Ellis following him to the bathroom, not a girl. But that's probably happened to him before.

"Oh hey...yeah I didn't wanna piss myself..." I stood beside Nick who was washing his hands. I was washing my hands when I felt a stare on me, and looked in the mirror to see Nick casually leaned against the wall, studying me with the sunglasses resting on his head. When I turned around he was standing right up against me with a cocky grin on his face and a hand placed on my hip with a thumb under the band of my shorts. Stunned, I didn't know what to do when he thrust me against the wall and put his right elbow by my head as his green eyes dug into mine, gauging my reaction which failed to come. "Uh..."

"Quite the charmer, ain't ya?" Nick smirked, repeating my words from days earlier, as he pressed his lips against mine and lifted my right leg up to get closer. Perplexed and shocked, I was going to push away but he had me pinned against the wall. Not that I was complaining. Or sober. God, something must be wrong with me; making out with a guy almost twice my age on my former wedding day, especially dressed the way we were, which was barely to begin with. I placed my left hand on Nick's face, and as my ring touched his face, I felt a frown as he pulled away quite forcefully and punched the wall beside my head. He ran a hand through his brown tresses as he stepped back, not looking at me. "Ah god...I uh...heard about...never mind...sorry."

As quickly as it happened, he left with a sharp turn on his heel and a hand subconsciously wiping at his mouth. I just stood there, feeling the world spin around me; being drunker than I had been in _ages_. Blinking, I went to go outside as Ro stood there with a sly grin on her face. I went by her again as she turned from looking at Nick to me. "Something happened in there, didn't it?"

"Does age come with the 'I know everything' bonus?" I asked a little more annoyed than I really was; which I cursed at since I knew it gave me away. She just nodded while taking a gulp and smiled even more broadly.

"Yeeup, it certainly does. Now I just _know_ we'll all have LOADS to talk about in a bit." Ro giggled and hiccupped at the same time. The other three girls filed in, giggling away. "Girls, we're gonna have a sleep over! NO BOYS!"

* * *

**A/N: Okay, I admit it. That was awkward to write...but it'd be a bland story if there wasn't stuff like that involved every now and again. :) R&R! D: **

**NOW I SERIOUSLY HAVE TO FINISH MY ESSAYS! TT_TT**


	10. Makeup and Magnums

**A/N: I have my own internet, and my laptop was rendered useless since I was overthrown with family dinners and turkey after turkey. My neighbours are home now, so now there is internet, and chapter 10. Also, note that some of the dialog looks like it's supposed to be an accent, but it really isn't, the characters are pretty inebriated at this point. Except Ellis is supposed to talk that way. **

**Also, a VERY late MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEARS to you all. :D

* * *

**

**Chapter Ten: Makeup and Magnums**

"Girls night? Niice!" Bandit giggled as she picked up her blankets and weapons, "In the Gym?"

"Yeah." Ro smiled as she gathered her things, "I'm serious, no boys allowed. Okay Ellis?"

"Yeah I heard ya..." Ellis smiled softly at Kay as she picked up her blanket and gave a small wave as she followed the rest of the girls through the change room. I grabbed the last bottle of dark rum and gave a small wave to the rest of the group, who just looked a little confused that the girls weren't going to be around for a night. "G'night girls...man, what ya'll wanna do then?"

"Good question, let's play some poker while we decide." Nick suggested dryly as he picked up the deck of cards and watched as the door behind me closed. I entered the Gym and found that it looked empty, but I heard some muffled conversation. Looking around, I found that the girls had found a weird room-like thing under the bleachers, complete with walls and a door.

"Interesting spot to pick out..." I commented. It was quite obvious that the janitor didn't go in there at all, there was sleeping bags, bean bags, blankets and Christmas lights dangling around with small little ornaments that reflected the coloured light around; pretty obvious that students made it their 'secret hide-away'. Jude flopped on a futon that was in the corner as the other girls found a comfy spot on some blankets or what not.

"Hey...let's...uh..." Jude was dazed over something, "Wait what?"

"Dude, you're really drunk." I giggled a little at her expression of being totally confused, but totally okay with it. "I think...I think we all are."

"Gee, really?" Ro giggled. "Okay girls! Spill it!"

"Noo! I like the alcohol, I don't wanna spill it...that's a waste..." Kay frowned as she stared bleakly at her emptying cup, but gave an absent smirk within the few moments. "Oh...oh wait, I just got what you meant."

"Leo...he's okay..." Jude grinned a little staring at us, gauging how interested we were. "Do you wanna hear _all_ of it, or just the boring basics?"

"Maybe...maybe not _all_ of it...but...enough to- umm..." I shook my head, trying to understand what I wanted to talk about. A series of giggles followed my drunken words. "Just...go for it. What happened why you disappeared for...uh...that long?"

"Hehehe...well, I was only supposed ta ask him out...but y'know me..." Jude looked at her friends who just nodded with small giggles. "It didn't quite stop with the 'hey, wanna go out?' bit...kinda took it to the office across the hall and...y'know...I mean, I would spill it all, but you guys are little pussies when it comes to this stuff you beg ta hear."

"Well..." Kay giggled as she took a good long gulp from her glass as she looked at Jude again. "I guess we can take the 14A version or something..."

"Okay well, I was gonna tell ya anyways. So we were making out, right, and then we ended up in the office thing 'cross the hall and yeah, we were on the desk. MY GOD IT WAS HOT!" Jude was either blushing, or it was the Christmas lights. "I mean...who hasn't wondered what it'd be like to make out on a principal's desk! No I'm totally joking, I never thought of that before today...but yeah...he's a good...uh...kisser for a geek."

"What about...his _other_ features?" Bandit giggled as she worded her question. Jude held her hands a certain distance away from each other as she grinned. "Oh my god...that's...wait I think that's what I asked...I'm not sure."

"Well, yeah...it was pretty good if you want the truth. And you know how I feel about sex, dude...it's all about that for me...hehe...penis..." Jude giggled as she and Bandit started to laugh instead, probably remembering something else. "Yup...so...anyone else got the balls to come clean?"

"Well, what about you girl?" Ro looked at Bandit, "C'mon Andi, I know you and Jason have had this thing for each other for awhile."

"Well...I can't really judge his kissing...being my first kiss and all." Bandit smiled shyly as she took a sip from her glass, "Y'know...I think I'm getting used of straight hard alcohol...so I think it's safe to say I'll die of liver failure before I die from zombies...OH! KAY! So how was ya'll with Ayehlus?"

"We just...made out really..." Kay looked down at her hands as she fiddled with the bracelet she had on. No one seemed to believe her though. "What? I don't wanna make out in front of ya'll...it was weird enough to start with..."

"Hey, how did you two end up dating?" I asked with a lopsided grin, "I was down here saving Nick's dumbass from a smoker that was hiding in the gym."

"Oh, it was pretty straight forward; he decided to just say: 'So, uh, you wanna be my girlfriend?'" Kay made a pretty good impersonation of the southerner. The other girls smiled or giggled a little at the cuteness of the memory. "It was sooo cute."

"Now that's true..." Ro smiled as she turned to look at Bandit, "So...yeah...Jason was _only_ on top of you...you can't say that you can't judge it overall..."

"Well...it was nicer than I thought...honestly, I kinda thought it'd be more awkward and drooly and shit to be any good...like...any kissing with anyone..." Bandit giggled as she got her girly on. "And...if anything, it was kinda fun to not care if people were watching or not..."

"Hey...I'm just happy you kept the clothes on...otherwise, you'd better be out of my sight..." I sighed, giggling at my little sister's attempt to hide her embarrassment. "Ro...I got a question for ya...did you and Nick ever fuck?"

"Oh...well..." Ro looked surprised and embarrassed at the same time, with a tinge of annoyance directed at me...maybe she wasn't expecting to be the target of attention that night. "Yeah. In short yeah we fucked, so what? He's into you now, girl. Probably hoping to be literally _into_ you soon...ahahahahaa..."

I cringed a little at her last comment, but spoke sarcastically anyways; what can I say, it's my comfort zone. "Oh for _sure_ girl..."

"Well...what happened in the bathroom?" Ro insisted on turning the tables on me. I shrugged, but that wasn't received well from the other girls. "C'mon girl, you already gave yourself away earlier."

"He basically threw himself at me...it was, weird if anything. Because until today, I was under the impression of...wait." I tried to figure out what I was going to say before shrugging, it wasn't going to come back.

"He _threw_ himself at you! That's...funny actually! How?" Ro giggled as the other girls stared me down to answer, knowing I'd try to avoid it altogether; lately I was horrible at my normal stance of avoidance. "That and why'd you run in the guys' bathroom?"

"I didn't know he was in there...besides I didn't wanna piss myself!" I sighed as I retold the story of the brief, awkward delight that caught me off guard. "So yeah, it was actually...y'know...nice. Even though I was kind of thrown to the wall...that was weird...hasn't happened to me since...yeah."

"Wow..." Ro sighed with the rest of the girls, "You've got him wrapped around your finger, and he _hates_ that, girl. I'd bet ya a million bucks on that...if money mattered still."

"Well...that and he was drunk...really, really drunk! You know what? I think I've had enough girl talk for the rest of the _year_." I sighed, "I...yeah...can we talk about something else? Oh! Makeup! I have some makeup!"

"Oh my god, I have an idea...let's be twelve for a bit here." Kay giggled as she showed off a kit of makeup she must have taken too. "Someone go see if the guys are passed out yet! Rikki, I vote you!"

"Oh, just come with me, I might need back up!" I giggled a little as I stood up.

"Agreed!" The girls giggled as they chose their 'weapon of humiliation'. I sighed with a smile as I agreed to be more immature than usual, and picked up bright red lipstick as we headed to the door of the room, then the boys' change room.

I put a hand to my mouth, making the rest of the girls quiet down, since I thought I heard muffled chuckling away on the other side of the door. I swear I heard Ellis do the same thing, and then there was silence. I signalled for the girls to just jump through the door with me, and as we did that, we collided with Ellis and his group of guys holding sharpies. I got a blue mark across my face as Ellis got a red lipstick streak on his bottom lip and up his cheek. There was a mild standstill, almost slow motion...maybe we were too drunk, before everyone hopped at one another, wrestling around and marking each other up with markers and makeup alike.

"Hey! That's not fair, that shit doesn't come off!" I remarked as Nick laughed as he drew something on my face, holding my wrist in place that had the lipstick that left a big mark on the side of his face. Everyone else was already fed up with wrestling around; Ro was almost completely red faced while Coach brandished green eye shadow all over his face and neck. Bandit was completely blue faced, Kay had green scribbled on her face and Jude was almost completely black faced. I didn't know how I looked until I shoved Nick back to his little group of guys, who looked like a group of misfit clowns that couldn't put makeup on right. I looked in the mirror and saw purple faces messily drawn all over, making all kinds of weird faces and saying things that couldn't be deciphered.

"Aww man...that didn't go as planned at _all_!" Jude huffed as she saw her face in the mirror; the guys quickly rubbed and washed the makeup off. "Retreat!"

"It's a tie, not a retreat." Bandit commented, but Jason proved her wrong by striping her face a little more with the marker. "Oi, that's not fair, you guys used _permanent_ marker!"

"Anything goes; sorry kiddo." Nick chuckled as the lipstick came off of his face while he scrubbed. Bandit picked up a stranded sharpie as she carefully inscribed the words 'I 3 Rikki :D' on the back of his white t-shirt. Nick whipped around once he saw her reflection walking away in the mirror; he turned to see what she put on his back. "What the hell? Oh come on..."

"G'night, ya'll!" Bandit giggled as she grabbed Kay and Jude by the arms, who grabbed Ro and me.

The girls laughed as I got dragged into the girls' change room to attempt to get the markers off our faces. That barely worked, since there was still pretty visible outlines of what was on our faces. We gave up and went back to our little slumber party haven.

"Well, now that the immaturity is controllable for now...I think I'm going to sleep." Ro chuckled as she curled up on a few blankets, "It's warm in here...I don't think I noticed how cold I got at night..."

"Oh that's just because you don't got Nick to warm you up no more. Hehhehe..." Kay giggled away to herself as Ro stared at her a little displeased. "Okay...maybe that wasn't too funny."

"Well, whatever...hey what do you think we'll do tomorrow?" Ro yawned as she spoke, and fell asleep before anyone could answer her. I think everyone else fell asleep at that moment too.

... ... ...

"Hey Nick?" Ellis was lying on the couch Kay normally slept on and was staring at the ceiling thoughtfully. All of the other guys were already asleep, and he wasn't sure if Nick was asleep. He heard a small grunt of annoyance. "You awake, bro?"

"Well, I am now...the hell you want?" Nick groaned as he turned to look at the southerner who was obviously fighting his sleep. Ellis just shrugged as he turned to see Nick glaring sleepily at him. "Well...?"

"I was jus jokin' about the whole Rikki thing...I mean I like her 'n' all...but not like that. I've got Kay now! 'Sides, Rikki, she's...she's too much like you fer me to like her 'n she probably don't like me like that anywho. But I think she suits you..I mean you two find the same things annoyin' and all...Oh, and then there's that whole denial thing you're so fixed on, but I think she really likes you becau- " Ellis was starting to go into rambling mode.

"Hey Ellis?" Nick interrupted his speech.

"Yeah?" Ellis' voice had the tone that revealed he was annoyed that he was always interrupted.

"Shut the hell up." Nick snapped, he was clearly irritated, "Maybe tell me...(yawn)... when I'm _awake_!"

"But you are awake, Nick..." Ellis sounded confused, but heard another soft snore added to the sleepy atmosphere surrounding him. He eventually relented and started to go to sleep, grumbling. "'Sides, you _never_ wanna talk."

* * *

"Fucking Christ..." I moaned as I woke up to a blistering headache rivalling the one a week earlier. I heard a few mellow greetings from around the room. "Do you guys feel a shitty as I do right now?"

"Not as much as I could be...I got laid so I'm happy!" Jude smirked upwards as she threw a pillow at Bandit, "Oi, Andi! Wake up woman! Ah never mind..."

"Hey Rikki? I got a question..." Ro turned her head towards me, "I think I remember Leo saying something last week or something...but I don't know if I'm actually remembering it or if I just...I dunno, imagined it...something about a group...argh...I had it and now I can't remember..."

"Illuminati?" I asked, and she looked surprised that it sounded right to her as she nodded, "Yeah...lucky for us he didn't make it up. I think he wanted to tell you all himself."

"But don't you know...I mean I've seen you talking to him." Jude smiled shakily, "I think I remember you telling me about something like this...that whole shot thing?"

"Yeah...pretty much...guess Jesse Ventura was right, kind of..." I wanted to shake my head, but I learned from the week before that it would hurt. "I mean...it was supposed to _kill _us, not sort of kill."

"Jesus Christ! So that means we're gonna die!" Bandit's face looked dumbfounded.

"Dude, when'd you wake up?" Jude looked at Bandit, who really did look scared and confused as she stared at her left arm. Jude just shrugged, "Never mind."

"Well, it hasn't killed us yet...so...maybe we're unintentionally immune. Can't have kids if that's the case...apparently we'd be sterile if we live through this bullshit." I sighed...there was a small giggle coming from Kay. "Hmm?"

"Oh...heh...yeah...that would just make you all the more perfect for Nick. No kids." Kay's giggle turned into a cackle as I rolled my eyes at her. "So what're we gonna do about ourselves then? Anywhere, plans...what're we doing? I know I'm _not_ dying here. I'd rather go out of town, die in some place cool...like Edmonton or some shit."

"Might as well go see if Leo's ready to tell us anything." I sighed, standing up and regretting it. "Holy fuck...I think I'm gonna have a pill or two...my _god_ my head is _dead_! Maybe in a bit instead...I just wanna sleep..."

"What in the _hell_ are you talkin' about, boy?" Coach was the first to react verbally to Leo's explanation of our situation as we sat in the library, sharing morning joints. "You're sayin' the _government_ started all this shit?"

"Well, yeah." Leo stuttered a little, "But I know that there _are_ safe-zones. Hell, whole _towns_ have been set up in Ontario."

"And how do you know this?" Nick raised an eyebrow as he scrounged around for clean clothes. There was puke on his shorts from the night before, and no one seemed to remember how it got there.

"There are images and _videos_ posted on facebook. Of all things, facebook!" Leo frowned a little. "Survivors have internet connection there, and they're broadcasting to anyone who would think to go on a normal everyday-website if they could. I was thinking that if we could get ourselves there, then we got a better chance at figuring out why the fuck no one's done anything to prevent the nationwide spread of this virus; or why they started it."

"Why were you on facebook, Leo? I thought you were being all-importantly smart, y'know...doing little nerd things to come up with some brilliant plan!" Nick looked irritated at Leo, who ignored Nick's comment as he continued by speaking over him. "So you're saying we're gonna make a cross country trip to some 'safe-zone', for all we know could just be more government bullshit because of fucking _facebook_?"

"These things are the simple things I did to make sure that what I found in the system were true. Now we're talking about hacking, and reading confidential files that are _not_ governmental, they're addressed and sent from people that seem to have more power than the government; democracy is the puppet that makes the masses feel secure while the people I'm talking about dig a grave under our feet. So I won't get into all the minutiae, but really Nick, I'm not dumb. The facebook part sounds dumb I'll grant you, but I only said that because I know most of you are familiar with the site and know people actually have to use it, instead of me telling you about all the systems and files I spent hours upon _hours _on, alone! It's even on the Navy's website, there are lists for each province, and there are strikeouts for which ever ones were overrun! There are satellite videos, the military-" Leo was frantically trying to keep his glasses in place as he was interrupted by a variety of voices.

"Oh, yeah. A lot of good they've done us so far."-"Oh sure, the _military_...yeah...them."-"Yup, the ones with all the fire power and men get infected and die uselessly as the ten of us with _no_ training whatsoever, and barely equipped..."

"Shut up! I'm still talking here!" Leo's voice resonated over the rest, causing everyone to fall silent from both surprise and slight annoyance. "Satellite, military, and a shit tonne of black cars. It's really weird. I have _no idea_ still of what's _really_ going on here, but I do know that there are still people left, and there's still a form of power left that we need to get to."

"But you still have no idea." Nick spoke flatly, a glare in place. "What the hell can ten of us do to a power like that?"

"Do I look like a fucking science team? No, I wasn't planning on saving anyone from the end of the world; I just wanted to be left alone as I tested video games, smoking weed and getting paid for it all. But that's asking too much. _Instead_, I'm stuck in the shithole of Canada, with a few barely-tolerable morons and a complete asshole who hasn't bothered helping anyone but himself!" Leo was reddening as his glasses slid off his face for the first actual time. Without the glasses, he looked sort of like Keanu Reeves in the Bill & Ted movies, but with sandy blonde hair and a face trying to hide anger directed at the gambler.

"Nerd rage, how cute." Nick's face remained stoic as ever, even thought Leo was glaring at him.

"You know what, Leo?" I spoke softly, but that didn't mean I felt like being nice to him; I was not a moron. "You all are talking down on this _shithole_ that happens to be my _home_, and I've held my tongue. So, _us_, we can talk down on it all we want. And I've been asking if you needed any help at all since you spilled 'the _secret_' that I've been expecting to hear this whole time! You shook your head, so don't complain about how many '_hours upon hours_' you put into this research; that, I'll give you, but you didn't have to do it _alone_; because we know that's just horseshit. Otherwise, besides the inconclusive data you've barely collected, do you have a plan? Y'know, since we're all depending on your holier-than-thou knowledge you're oh-so-cursed with?"

"I- uh..." Leo looked flabbergasted. Personally, I didn't have a problem with the guy, but I was a little hungover and not in the mood for a nerd-rage-rant. Sure, I never graduated with _cum lade_, but it didn't mean anything on paper anyways. School sucked, I just liked the internet and video games and documentaries on weird stuff. If it weren't for those invaluable sources, I don't think I would've been here to tell you this story. I sighed and closed my eyes, my hangover probably added to my little tirade on the nerd.

"I'm sorry, Leo, but seriously; I offered help, and I'm not a moron, thank you very much." I didn't want to look annoyed, but I must've. "I've been thinking about this for awhile now, and I think that we can't really do anything about deciding a carrier or immune or whatever...but we can decide what we ought to do. I mean...we're obviously going to run out of food and guns sooner or later, so anyone have any input for a plan B?"

"Oh! I've been thinking about that for awhile now too!" Jude smiled a little, "I mean I knew of this Illuminati shit since you told me two years ago!"

"See, that's how it's done Leo...you open your mouth and _ask_." I gave a small smirk at him as he just frowned a little, but remained quiet. "What were you thinking, kid?"

"Well, since we gotta get ourselves to...Ontario?" Jude asked as Leo gave a small nod, "Okay, well I was just thinking about the railroad tracks. If we can get oursel-"

There was an ear deafening roar as the red door to the parking lot exploded into the library, sending Ellis flying backwards with it and the rest of us screaming in surprise mixed with fear. In an instant, we were armed as the giant swung through the group one at a time; hitting them at the wall or into a horde of zombies that followed. There was so many of them, like the rest of Prince Rupert were waiting outside for the right moment to come in and gulp down the ten remaining people inside. No one was expecting it to happen and not one of us had anything to say besides,

"Watch out!"

"SHOOT IT!"

Or

"HO-LEE SHIT!"

Once the tank finally succumbed to the bullet parade, the other infected were relatively easy to clear away. All that could be heard was another echoing roar of a horde and a few people yelling to be helped up.

"Hey, I can't do this on my own!" Nick's leg didn't look to good as everyone else was helping up others; we were totally caught off guard and suffered dearly for thinking the zombies would never get in. I picked Nick up by the arm, grabbed a few shirts and pants and helped him limp through the change rooms as zombies raced towards us. Everyone else was already hiding in the bleachers that had a safe room door, beckoning and frantically yelling, like that would make me move faster.

"Hurry up! Git inside, man!" Ellis was propped up against the wall as Kay and Jude were yelling incoherently with blood smeared on their shirts.

"Can't you see I'm dragging Nick? It wouldn't hurt for you to come out and _help_." I groaned as I dragged Nick just inside and let him drop on a few blankets.

"Oh yeah, that felt great; just drop me on the floor with a fucked up knee. Thanks sweetheart." Nick grumbled, holding his knee and trying to manoeuvre it back into place. I slammed the door as the zombies raced to try catch up. They were lifelessly groaning and growling as they scratched and pounded at the door. "Oh great, so now we're stuck in here listening to _that_."

"Shut up, Nick." I grumbled slightly, as I took a seat by Ellis who was mumbling to Ro and Kay. Nick just rolled his eyes as Coach knelt down beside Nick and placed two hands on his knee, pulling at this awkward angle and shook his head as Nick howled and cursed at Coach.

"WHAT. THE. FUCK. COACH!" Nick cringed as he looked at his knee, then to the man that had a small smirk. He moved his knee a little, and looked a little less angry when he found that it moved properly.

"I'd done seen my share of dislocated things, and I tell you, that wasn't that bad Nick." Coach gave a small chuckle as Nick just swore under his breath and lay down.

"Well, that worked." I sighed, absently reloading my gun and pistols. "So...do we just wait until we don't hear them anymore before we gather shit together and go?"

"Pretty much." Ro shrugged, "Where to first?"

"Well, before I was rudely interrupted, I was thinking of following the railroad tracks." Jude shrugged a little, "But now that I think of it, there are docks just down the hill. If we can manage to get a boat, we can travel up the Skeena as far as we can get and go from there."

"Jude, once again, that's a good idea." I sighed, realising just how much we'd need each other to do this. "So, here's what I'm thinking. We take the van with a lot of food, some clothes, make sure you have a jacket and good shoes on; this isn't a fashion show. When we get down to the docks, we're going to need to find some fuel to take with us and the easiest boat to get out with."

"When?" Bandit questioned, with a look of understanding and an attempt of readying herself. There were some red kits lying around that I hadn't noticed before, so grabbing one with the others following my lead for some reason, I peeked out to see zombies leaning against the wall, smacking the door they couldn't get back through and sitting around.

"Okay, when this door opens; take out the zombies, grab an armful of food and drinks, throw it in the backpacks and get out to the van. Sound reasonable?" I asked the nodding group. I smiled a little, not knowing why and swung the door open, already shooting the zombies I'd mentally claimed before opening the door and running to the library. Within minutes, the first part of the plan went smoothly.

* * *

At the docks, five of us scavenged for fuel as the other five surveyed the docks for a good sized boat that had the most fuel in it.

"Let's take this one." Ellis' eyes gleamed as he looked around at the nice cots through the window; it was a decent sized boat. "Oh wait...who's got the keys?"

"Shit...no one thought of _keys_?" Bandit groaned, slamming her head on the door that remained locked.

"Ah hell, screw the keys; I'll hotwire the damned thing." Ellis chimed as he pulled out a pistol and shot twice, with a look of honest surprise when the door slowly swung open and rushed inside to get to work.

My group was running around with big cans of diesel, mostly hoping that was the right kind of fuel and shooting some zombies that caught on that we were at the docks. Running through a cloud of smoke, dodging bile and throwing the one pipe bomb I was smart enough to grab before leaving the library to divert the accumulating horde, we raced to the boat we saw Jude hopping around on, and Kay who was kneeling on top of the boat with a rifle in hand and killing some zombies around us to help us get there faster.

"Now's a good time to get that motor going!" Nick yelled as a tank threw a chunk of concrete, crushing a few infected instead of us. Jason was slicing through the seemingly duplicating zombies. The motor started up as we hopped on the boat and started to go. "I'm beginning to like you guys."

"Seriously, it takes that long to just like us?" Kay put on her best pouty face as Nick just rolled his eyes and took a seat. "Whatever, you love us all and you know it."

"Especially Rikki!" Jude giggled as Nick just raised an eyebrow and looked away from her.

"Whatever." Nick shrugged as he got more comfortable on a seat beside a fishing rod. "So, who found the keys?"

"It's name's Ellis, freaking hillbilly can do just about anything." Bandit proclaimed as Ellis just grinned back at the group, with a red hat that read 'Captain' sitting on his own hat.

"My buddy Keith lost his boat keys all the time, so you kin thank him fer saving your ass, Nick." Ellis smiled as he looked at the waters before him, "Uh, hey...I don't know where I'm going."

"We'll show you, just go; you're going the right way." Kay nodded encouragingly, as Nick grumbled something probably unfriendly about Keith.

"Shit! I forgot the smokes!" Jude looked mortified at the disappearing city behind us as she pouted, almost in tears.

"That's just great." Nick sighed unhappily, grumbling about the 'dumb kids' he was stuck with.

"You could've grabbed them too, y'know...You have hands." Bandit sighed, being annoyed as well. Nick took out his cigarette case and lit a smoke, his stare set on Jude's envious one as he gave a small grin, which Jude glared at. She opened her mouth to say something.

"Nope, I'm not sharing." Nick blew smoke in her face as she swore under her breath at the grinning gambler.

"Oh boy...this'll be one long trip." Kay sighed.

* * *

**A/N: Tada! I do not care if boats can be hotwired or not, but I do care for you to read and REVIEW please! :D **


	11. Then there was More

**A/N: Hello, hello! So, yeah, the chapters are pretty damned long, but I don't want to chop them in half since I don't want chapters upon chapters leading to nothing so I hope it doesn't bother you guys. _P_**_**lease**_** read it anyways! It makes more sense for a longer chapter where everything can flow together, rather half a chapter and then the next part after it. If that makes any sense, it does to me :L ****REVIEW! :D**

* * *

**Chapter Eleven: Then there was More**

"So, the view's really nice and all but...any idea of where we're going?" Rochelle was lying down on top of the boat, staring at the sky. Everyone was sporting a new outfit, but it was two weeks since anyone had a shower, so we spent as much time on deck as possible, so as to not smell one another. The river was too dangerous to think of swimming in, and there weren't any spots to anchor if we could find a spot. No one really responded to Ro's question, since we were all pretty sick of being so close to one another.

"I miss the library." Jude huffed, "I miss my weed and smokes, and showers, and good food...blankets, movies...man."

"Welcome to the club. That was heaven, those few weeks in that place was as close to normal as it's been for three years." Ro frowned a little, but smiled at the rest of us as she sat up. "Hey...Ellis!"

"Yeeah?" Ellis chimed happily; he was the only one that seemed happy at all times.

"Any land?" Rochelle looked back, with an eyebrow raised at the southerner as he simply shrugged and whistled a tune. "Hmm...I wish I could be that happy."

"Holy shit guys!" Bandit hopped up and down frantically, pointing behind the boat. "Look!"

"What?" Everyone asked sporadically as they went to look at what Bandit was pointing out.

"That thing's spewing black stuff...is that good?" Bandit looked up at us from her kneeling position she did to show her discovery better. "I mean, there wasn't anything at all...and I've been staring at this thing to keep from getting seasick."

"No, honey, I don't think that's good." Ro gave a small headshake as she pulled Bandit up and looked behind her to see Ellis hopping and whooping. "What, Ellis?"

"LAND HO!" Ellis threw the hat that he insisted on keeping on top of his own hat aside and continued to cheer.

"Oh thank _god_." Nick sat up from the cot and came out on deck, "I am _sick_ of sharing a bed with everyone. Now if we had showers, I guess that'd be different."

"Or if it was just Rikki." Kay giggled at his expected scowl, and squinty glare.

"Shut up. I'm tired of playing high school." I sighed, ignoring the wavy light-headed feeling of being seasick. Summer was long gone, and the trees were tinting themselves yellow and orange.

"Well get it out in the open, and I'll leave you alone." Kay smirked slyly as she opened her mouth, "RIKKI LIKES NICK! RIKKI LIKES NICK! Rikki and Nicky sitting in a tree, F-U-C-K-I-"

"Fuck! I _guess_ I like you, Nick." I sarcastically yelled at him, making Kay forget to scream the last few letters and causing a weird look come over Nick, a mix of a smirk covered by semi-shock. I regretted ever saying that. I was actually embarrassed, and I had no way to hide that. I could only hope. "There, now shut the fuck up already."

"NEVOR!" My three idiots screamed as they continued to be the five year olds they seemed to be by continuing Kay's chant. I put a hand to my forehead, trying to prevent the oncoming headache if they continued.

"That's right, young'uns. The cat's outta the bag, finally." Coach chuckled, giving a small slap to Nick's shoulder. "You owe me a twenty, Mr. Gambler."

"Oh, that's cool. Betting on a girls emotions now, are we Nick?" Rochelle gave Nick small nudge as she smiled at me, while he just pulled out a bill with an annoyed look on his face at both Coach and Ro. "What a charmer. For that, honey, he's all yours."

"Screw you all." I shook my head. The boat shook violently as the boats metal rode along a rocky surface and Ellis was cursing happily away, if that suits how he was talking, since we couldn't really hear him until the boat stopped.

"HEY! I said we're THERE! Christ you guys. I dunno about you, but I'm gettin' off this boat a.s.a.p.!" Ellis was already hopping onto the last dock before the river bent around an island into wherever it ended. "That black stuff you saw, Andi, it ain't good...that's about it. C'mere Kay, I'll help ya."

Once we were all off the boat, there were few things that could be said.

"How the _hell_ did we fit on that thing?" Jason scratched his head a little. The boat was basically on the small beach Ellis found, because the dock he parked beside wasn't much of a dock, more just floating wood tied to a tree further in shore. There was no fuel left in the boat, we were pretty much out of food and there wasn't a town in sight. "By the way...where the hell are we?"

"If we planned this right, we should be a few miles outside of Prince George." I looked at Jason and Leo. "I guess we'd have to go into town for supplies and such...so you'd better know your way around town."

"So we're walking." Nick frowned as we picked up our backpacks that held batteries, undergarments, sleeping bags, and some chips and pop. It was starting to get dark, and the one thing that everyone was dreading, out loud or not, was travelling in the dark on foot.

"Aww, is lil' Nicky scurred of the dark?" Bandit taunted; her and Kay were really the only ones used of walking through the thick woods unarmed, so since they had guns now, it was a cakewalk for them. Back when they were thirteen and such, they wanted to walk the railroad tracks just like in 'Stand By Me', only they found a dead bear before they came home. Nick just grumbled. "You can hold Rikki's hand if you wanna."

"Shut up." I groaned, pretty much in sync with Nick.

"Well, okay. But there's probably no zombies out here anyways." Bandit grinned a little lopsidedly at the darkening woods and back to us.

* * *

"See? What'd I tell you?" Bandit smiled happily as she slapped the 'Welcome to Prince George' sign as we passed. "Sure it's another mile or so, but there's a building over there that's got lights on."

"And there's a safe house sign right there." Ro shrugged while pointing down at a spray-painted house and an arrow pointing in the vague direction of the building. There were a few cars parked outside, but a big black van looked like it was just parked there, since the others had scratches and dents and the van looked basically untouched, save for a few blood spatters on the hood. "Maybe there are people there already?"

"Looks like it." Jason looked through the scope of his rifle. "Well, what're we waiting for? Otto's, here we come!"

A horde seemed to materialize out of nowhere as we raced up to the building. Slicing and running out of ammo left right and center was making me feel uneasy as we finally cleared the way and got to the door, bumping into it, since it was locked and had no bars to reach through to change that. All that was left were a few melee weapons and a few pistols.

"Hey! Open up!" Nick yelled, kicking the door as a scream of an approaching horde alerted the rest of us. Footsteps could be heard as they stopped before yelling back through the door. We started yelling as the zombies rounded the corner. We were out of ammo, I dropped my cricket bat just before we got to the parking lot and the zombies were closing in. "OPEN THIS DOOR!"

"How do I know you're not all fucked up like those things out there?" A man's voice could be heard on the other side of the metal door. I shoved Nick aside to be heard over the approaching horde, disregarding his unimpressed look at being shoved.

"Well, we're talking for one thing. And in a few minutes, we'll just be another ten zombies trying to get in if we can't get inside NOW!" I hollered over the horde that was now screeching and pounding on the group that had scrunched in the doorway behind the ones with the melee weapons. There was silence on the other side of the door, so I kicked the door, hoping it'd open up. Looking back at the group, Ellis and Jason were swinging away at the endless stream of infected with a guitar and a machete. Kay still had a magnum while Jude and Rochelle were holding one pistol each, swearing their heads off as more zombies appeared.

"Now would be fucking nice!" Nick yelled as the ground started to shake and a distinctive roar could be heard over the rest of the zombies. "Guys, I don't like the sound of that..."

"Just let 'em in already." I heard a woman's voice, then there was a game of word tennis, which we didn't have time for.

I was going to kick the door again, but it opened just a crack as I stopped my foot and pushed it open while throwing Bandit in first and pushing her friends after her. Jason and Leo followed but I closed the door as the infected tried to push pass me. "Guys, help!"

Rochelle, Nick and Ellis shoved as many zombies back as they could, with Coach punching in a few faces. I kicked something over as my pistol clicked empty, and looked down to see a jar full of green slime. I picked it up, looking at the tank that was visible and storming towards us. I closed my eyes as I threw the jar at the behemoth, making the attacking horde clear the doorway to go beat on the tank as I pushed the door to feel it locked again.

"OH COME ON!" The door flung open as I felt a tug at my jacket and the other four filed in swiftly behind me as the door slammed again. Looking up, there was a rather tall man with dusty blonde hair staring blankly at the many new faces. "What's up?"

... ... ...

We were in a pool hall with two new faces; the man that didn't want to let us in to begin with and a short, robust lady with brown hair styled like she was stuck in the 70's. We just stood there, not knowing how to break the verbal silence, since it definitely was not quiet outside, what with the zombies and all.

"And who might ya'll be?" The brunette lady inquired, a small smile playing on a tired face.

"Oh great, more hillbillies." Nick scowled as he stepped up the few stairs in the split level building. The lady's expression hardened a little as she looked at Nick with a tint of distaste as he looked back, with a look of mock innocence. "What?"

"Mister, if you gotta problem, you're welcome to step outside n' sort it out there." The lady's smile returned as she looked back at the friendlier part of the group as Nick shrugged. "I'm Bernadette. Just Bernie if you prefer."

"Nick, would it kill you to turn off the asshole-mode for a minute? I'm Rikki; this is my sister Bandit, and her two friends Jude and Kay." I looked at Nick, who just rolled his eyes as he turned to go further in the building. I gave a small nod at Bernadette. She was basically my height, which isn't much in all honesty, but she had this sort of aura that surrounded her, as if she was a leader of sorts. Like a school principal you don't want to fuck with, but you know she's nice anyways. We all started to go into the building. It was wide, with eight pool tables, a bar and what looked like a little 50's styled diner in the back complete with a jukebox.

"Jason and this is Leopold. Just call him Leo though. The other way sounds too dorky." Jason gave a small smirk as Leo nudged his friend.

"You can call me Coach, ma'am." Coach gave a smile, the kind of smile you just _know_ something's going through a person's mind; love at first sight, if you will? No, that sounds too cheesy, but it's the best way I can describe that smile. "This here's Rochelle, Ellis and the lil' asshole by nature there's Nick."

"Howdy." Nick gave a mock hat-off-the-head gesture at Bernadette, who simply cocked her head with an eyebrow raise.

"Sorry we smell like shit." Bandit lowered her head in slight embarrassment.

"How ya doin?" Ellis tilted his head back to crack his neck a little, "OH COOL! Pool! Nick I betcha I kin beat ya at that!"

"You're dreaming, kid." Nick's expression when he knew he was winning at poker had returned with a small glint in his eye. He looked at the man with the dusty blonde hair, who handed him a pool cue. "Hey thanks...?"

"Lucas. My name's Lucas, owner of this hall." He gave a small smile and a shrug and pointed over to the back of the hall. "Food's there, I'll be back in a minute."

... ... ...

"If he's the owner, then why's it called 'Otto's'?" We were comfortably sitting around on couches and chairs, talking to one another as Ellis' eyes were filled with curiosity, asking anyone in general his question of Otto's namesake. He was once again sidetracked from his game of pool with Nick. Not caring which ball he sunk, he slipped an arm around Kay as Nick started to be audibly annoyed.

"Seriously. Pay some attention kid or don't play me anymore." Nick huffed as he lit a smoke while leaning on the table.

"Well, Otto is in the back room. Only he don't look the same anymore." Bernadette was busying herself behind a bar counter, setting glasses full of a dark liquid, probably beer. "Otto Barlow was Luke's dad, before he tried ta eat our brains and Luke took care of him. I'm just the assistant manager here."

"Oh." Ellis' expression dropped a little, but looked around him for Lucas. "S'that mean's he's dead? His dad, I mean."

"Yeah, you dumb hick. You know what Ellis? I'm not playing anymore." Nick sighed, clearly bored, as he sunk the rest of the balls and went to sit down at the bar place. He reached for a cup that Bernie just finished filling. "Rickard's? Yum."

"I didn't say help yourself, now did I?" Bernie gave a small slap on Nick's hand as he pulled it back, annoyed. "Didn't your momma ever teach you any manners?"

"Lady, you can't be much older than me, so don't treat me like that." Nick's eyebrows furrowed together as Bernie went an ever so slight shade of pink. She kind of looked old, but I wasn't the best at guessing ages.

"Just say please, Nick. It won't kill you, I pinky swear." I smiled at Nick, who just stared at me as I wiggled my pinky at him. He looked back at Bernie apprehensively as he grumbled a barely audible 'Can I _please_ have a beer?'

"Oh ho! Now see here, this is the woman for you, mister! She keeps you in line, I can see." Bernie smiled at me with a look of approval, what she was approving, I'm still not sure. But I smiled back anyways with a small shrug. "Here you go, miss. One Rickard's Dark."

"Thank you." I smiled and went to go sit with Rochelle, who was tormenting herself staring at a menu for the diner.

"I never thought I'd see the day I'd miss fast food." Ro grimaced a little, "What I wouldn't do for a big stack of greasy fries and burgers. Man oh man..."

"And how..." I my stomach grumbled as I thought of the times my family would order delivery anything, and I'd actually complain it wasn't what I wanted that night. "Or even canned things right about now. I'm sick of eating chips and pop."

"Then never fear; Luke's here!" Luke smiled, with blue eyes dancing as he looked at the two of us sitting at a table. "I was just going to make dinner. See anything you like on that menu? Don't bother trying to conserve, I mean, we're leaving tomorrow."

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Luke. At once, everyone was at a table, chattering and grinning at the menu.

"Really and truly?" Bandit looked up at Lucas, who just grinned as he pulled out a little notepad. "Holy shit it's Christmas. I want...three burgers, everything on them, ah...four corndogs, three orders of poutine, three hotdogs, oh, maybe one more side of fries with gravy. Oh, and a large pitcher of Sleeman's Honey Brown. Please and thank you!"

"Whoa there, kiddo, you don't look nineteen." Lucas raised an eyebrow at her last request. The people under nineteen simply dropped their jaws at his words, and looked enviously at me, who just barely met the age requirement. "Just kidding."

After everyone had their order down, which pretty much finished the dinner part of the food Lucas figured, we were settled in nicely at the booths, talking away about the food we were going to consume. Lucas and Bernie were in the back, happily whistling as they fixed the food and dishes.

"Holy crap, it's been too long." Bandit sighed, sniffing appreciatively at the air flowing out of the kitchen. Everyone just inhaled and sighed at the smell.

"Dude, I just jizzed." Jude just grinned as her friends giggled at her words.

* * *

As the first few dishes came out, everyone half glared at Bandit, who happily dug in; disregarding the stares she received for shoving her face full of trans-fats. "What? It's my food."

"Everyone, dinner's served." Luke beamed as he come out of the kitchen again, but this time with a trolley, followed by Bernie. I saw Coach eye her with a smirk; if I had to guess at which kind of women Coach preferred, more than likely, he liked the kinds that cooked good food. And that's what the food looked like; good fucking food. "Here you go. Yup, dig in. It would've all went to waste if you guys didn't come along."

"Or if you didn't let us in." Nick countered absently as he took bite after bite of an enormous cheeseburger. Since there were twelve people, and three intact tables, there were four to a table, and there was almost too much food to be squashed onto the space they provided. The other five tables were shoved up against the back doors that were metal, hooking on to one another to create a chain of tables and making it really difficult to open. Luke just shrugged at the man sitting beside him. Ro and I were already sitting with each other on the other side.

"Hey Nick, why'd you wear another suit? I mean that one's beige and navy blue...not much different from your first suit." I asked, making Nick look up with a slight frown.

"Why, what's wrong with my suits?" Nick spoke between chewing, as he raised an eyebrow. I just shrugged. "Well I like them."

"Well, I was just wondering, that's all." I shrugged again, looking at the pool table a few meters away from our table. "Thanks Luke! Thanks Bernie! It's freaking delicious."

"No problem, girl." Luke smirked at me from across the table. And there it was again, the staring at brighter eyes than brown. It was awkward, and there was emptiness in his blue eyes. But it was like the bathroom all over again, the way Nick scanned me before he lunged; a predator sizing up its prey, so I looked away when that feeling returned. The stare was filled with more perversion than interest, and that was a little different from Nick's stare after all. I went back to eating the food before me. Before long, I was comfortable as one could be when they haven't bathed in two weeks.

* * *

"Whew...I'm stuffed. Thanks again." I smiled as I stood up to put my dishes on the trolley again. I sat there for a few minutes before getting bored. "I think...yeah. I wanna play pool. Anyone wanna play me?"

"I'll play." Nick and Luke spoke almost at the same time, and then looked at each other with a blank stare as they wiped their mouths from the messy fast food. Surprised, I shrugged, wondering how in the world no one my age showed any interest in me. But that was probably because they were more or less age appropriate for the younger ones, even though I was barely older than the 'younger ones'.

"Uh...rock, paper, scissors? Or teams?" I sighed, as the two looked at me a little taken aback.

"It's a two player game, Rikki." Nick cocked an eyebrow at me, then at Luke. Ro shrugged, when I looked to her to help me out.

"Well, it's a game. Y'know, for _fun_?" I reasoned, "What difference does it make if there's four playing at one table?"

"What difference-? Ugh, forget it then." Nick shrugged and went back to his plate of food, which had another burger on it somehow. When his look questioned it, Ro answered.

"I'm full, you can have it." Ro smiled as she scooted off the table with her pop can and went to sit by the table I was setting up. I figured I was playing by myself instead, since everyone was eating again. But then Luke stood up as the table was set up.

"Do you know how to break?" He asked as he stood close, he smelled kind of like Axe, and I didn't really like that smell too much. All the creeps I encountered until that point always smelled like Axe. He was close enough to smell me, which made me a little self-conscious, since I probably smelled horrid. I nodded, moving away a little too quickly. "Don't worry, you don't smell as bad as what's out there."

"Uh...okay..." I shrugged as I messed up on the first shot. Nick snorted a little in the background. I shot a small glare at him, as he grinned with a hand on the side of his face, shaking his head. He was laughing at how I played pool, and I was none too happy with that. But then Luke reset the balls, as he came around to slip an arm over mine as he leaned over me. "Uh...hi?"

"No no, you do it like this." I looked over his arm at Ro, who looked just as surprised as I felt. I let him help anyways. And when he walked away, Nick was standing beside me with a cue in hand, and a weird stare set on Luke as he chalked the cue. "Hey. Oh...oh! I get it. Sorry man."

"For what?" Nick raised an eyebrow as he leaned over the table to take his turn and sunk a striped ball. "Showing her how to do it wrong?"

"Why you-" Luke gave a small glare at Nick's comment, when I just accepted that it was my turn. I accidently sunk a striped ball, and Nick chuckled a little, ignoring Luke altogether. "Naw man, I just thought that you two were an item, so I backed off. But if plans change, sweetie."

"For god sake, I'm _nineteen_. Why do guys twice my age creep on me?" I half whined in confusion as Rochelle giggled at the look on their faces. "Seriously, how old are you?"

"Thirty-five. That's not old." Luke frowned a little at me.

"Then go for Rochelle, fuck, the two of you could fight over her or something. Besides, she's older, and hotter." I shrugged as they looked at Ro, who was bright pink, and Nick looked back to me. Luke just shrugged as he walked over to her and sat down, smiling at a blushing Rochelle. She just looked over with a surprised look that told me she wasn't exactly happy with me at that moment, but she wasn't complaining either. "I just wanted to play pool."

"And what, suck at it?" Nick smirked, apparently ignoring my comment on his age.

"Shut up." I frowned, a little playfully, since I knew I sucked at pool. It was still fun to try.

"Well, watch me for a bit, learn something, then we'll play for real." Nick lowered his head a little, with a small wink and a click of his tongue before he took his turn, with a certain amount of cockiness shown in his movements.

* * *

"Okay okay... ten bucks says I sink it in that corner pocket." I sighed, finding a use for the money I found in Jeremy's backpack. I started with four-hundred, but since the start of our 'real' game, and betting on every ball, I had about two-hundred dollars in the 'pot' Nick set up. I don't know much about gambling or pool, so to me I was surprised that I was doing okay, since after I sunk that ball, there was only the eight ball left for me. Nick had about the same amount of his own bets, with the winner taking it all. Holding my breath slightly, since that was all Nick needed to sink too; he looked up with a small look of surprise.

"Double or nothing?" Nick half chuckled holding out a few more bills, when he was in his comfort zone, that is, playing poker or pool apparently, he was bearably human. Still cocky and arrogant, but he wasn't a complete asshole that way. More or less.

"Man...I guess." I sighed, knowing I'd probably fuck up. When I didn't, I cheered while Nick's face dropped. "Haha! Pay up, Mr. Gambling man!"

"Wh- how...Ugh..." Nick sighed, shoving the fistful of bills in my hand with a grumble and walking away. I smiled as he scrunched his nose and raised an eyebrow at me. "Beginner's luck."

"Whatever." I looked Bernie, getting over the pool game while Nick continued to grumble as Ellis and Bandit giggled at him, and asked a question that had been bothering me for the time we were in the hall, "I smell like shit, any way of stopping this?"

"There's bathtubs in the apartments upstairs, but...the hot water's only good for a few showers." Bernie spoke in a matter of fact tone of voice.

"...Each?" I asked, a little uncomfortable with the thought of her shaking her head, which she did. "Uh...but there's like...ten of us that need a shower."

"And three tubs." Bernie chuckled a little, "Better get a buddy you're comfortable with, my best guess."

"Oh damn." I sighed, looking around; everyone else seemed to have heard Bernie's advice about our hygiene predicament.

"Well, Kay you're coming with me." Ellis nodded as he grabbed her hand and went up the stairs. Everyone else seemed to have a buddy in mind until there was just Coach, Rochelle, Nick, Bernie, Luke and me left staring at one another awkwardly, wondering if it was worth the shower.

"I showered today, so did that guy." Bernie acknowledged Luke who just shrugged in agreement. Annoyed that I wasn't going to hear the end of it if I showered with Nick, and having no intentions of showering with Coach, I awkwardly turned to Ro with an eyebrow raise.

"Do you wanna shower with Coach?" I basically mouthed at Ro, who gave a small frown and a slight headshake. "Didn't think so."

Nick looked at me with an unsure look on his face, "You comfortable with this, Rikki?"

"Oh, I should ask you that same question, I'm Ro's partner." I smirked with a tilted head as Nick expressed genuine surprise, but it was quickly buried under his regular poker face, but then changed again to a scowl when he realized what that meant. "C'mon girl. A _much_ needed shower awaits!"

"Oh come ON!" Nick probably wanted to throw something at me as he stared at a just as uncomfortable Coach. By then, me and Rochelle were already running up the stairs before he had a chance to throw anything. But there were footsteps trailing behind as I saw Nick practically running behind us, with Coach following slowly behind him. "Rikki...Rikk! Hey, you're not serious, right?"

"Is there a problem, Nicky?" I chimed, not bothering to hide my amusement with his confusion. Ro joined in by giggling.

"Uh, _yeah._ I'm not exactly the type to go around showering with fat guys, no offense Coach." Nick had a dry look on his face, like he was instantly sober after learning he'd be showering with Coach. Coach made a small look, like he did in the intro when Nick made fun of his love for chocolate. Unimpressed, that's it. I just smiled as Ro and I walked into an apartment at random, closing the door on Nick as he tried to protest again. "Rik-ki..."

* * *

"So are we really going to shower together?" Ro raised an eyebrow. I shook my head, and she gave a small breath of relief. "Then how-"

"Look, whoever was in there is done, so I'm guessing the next door will be the same. Just sneak in there and we'll have a shower each." I explained as Ro caught on with a small smile.

"Ahh...pretty smart." She chuckled, "I can't imagine what's going through Nick's mind right now."

The door opened as Kay and Ellis wandered out, both blushing a little as I raised a brow at the two of them. "I hope you didn't use all the hot water. See ya, Ro. Heh."

... ... ... ***Nick POV*** ... ... ...

_Jesus Christ, Nick. How'd you manage this?_ I didn't know what the hell to think, there was _no_ fucking way I was going to shower with planet fat-ass. Did I piss Rikki off? Wait, I really didn't just think that did I? Eh, forget it. I just stared awkwardly at Coach, who was just wearing a towel –a gruesome sight in itself. Bandit and Jason were already out of the shower and laughing at me as I slowly followed Coach. "Ah shut up."

"Have fun Nick. Don't drop the soap, Coach!" Jason's face was red as he probably was trying not to laugh like Bandit was. I fingered him as the door half-closed.

"So how'd you want this to work?" Coach grimaced as the water started running.

"Just don't fucking look." I frowned, "And I'm going first."

"Okay." Coach nodded as he followed me in the tub.

"Coach, what the fuck?" I half yelled, but realized the others might've still been out there. That didn't sound good how I said it. Coach just shrugged as he turned around in the water first. Grossed out, I quickly smothered the body wash on myself and my hair; at least it was that Old Spice 2 in 1 shit, so it went by faster. Turning around, with eyes unintentionally open, I closed them again as I gave up trying to make a double shower work and tried to get out of the tub, but ended up kicking Coach's legs out from under his weight. I hit my head on the wall as the loud thump followed. "OW FUCK! Get off me!"

"Nick you fucker, whatchoo go and do that for?" Coach snarled, clearly just as pissed off with me as I was. Kicking him off without regards, I stomped out of the bathroom with my towel and clothes in hand.

"I didn't mean to fucking do that." I yelled as I slammed the door, holding my aching head and scrunching my eyes closed as I tried to forget. "Forget that happened, Nick. Fuck, I'm going to need a _lot_ of beer this time."

"And you'll **still** remember." Bandit and Jason were sitting on the couch, laughing hysterically. "You still have some suds in your hair."

"Fuck you all." I groaned, stomping out of the apartment altogether and opening the door to the one across the hall.

... ... ...

I heard a chorus of that overused R.E.M song being sung in the bathroom. You know, that 'It's the end of the World' song or whatever. It sounded kind of like Rikki, and I was right when she came out of the bathroom to look for her clothes in a towel. She looked surprised."Uh...hey."

"Did you have _fun_ in the shower, Nicky?" She grinned, and I don't know if I've ever felt the need to throw something at a woman more than I did that time I threw my shoe at her. But I didn't have my shoes on this time. So I chose to ignore her comment, because I did _NOT_ have any fun in the slightest.

"Do you always sing in the shower?" I tried to defend myself, but lately, I was horrible at that. I don't know what the fuck happened to me by that point, so I'll blame it on being around the same people for so long.

"When I'm _alone_." She grinned, and I realized Ro didn't walk out with her.

"What the fuck Rikki." I groaned, really really trying not to find something to hurl at her. That dumb smile, I hated it. She walked by, a little pink, to grab her backpack. "What's your problem with me, seriously."

"Nothing at all. I just thought it'd be funny, and I was right." She smirked as she tilted her head and remarked, "You still have suds in your hair, you okay with that?"

"Well, I was in a rush." I explained a little, but didn't want to get into any detail. But avoiding detail was pointless since it was already stuck in my head. She giggled at me. "What?"

"Too much fun, I take it." She laughed as she spoke, "Bisexual pedo-Nick...interesting title, there mister."

"Fuck you." I snapped, as she pulled her head a little farther back. Her face dropped the smile.

"It was a joke, sheesh." She shrugged as she went back into the bathroom with the door semi-closed, dressing behind the door. "Lighten up a little. Besides, you know you want to."

"What?" I felt a stinging feeling at the back of my head, and saw her leg from the crack of the door and her reflection of her changing her shirt and looked away. "No. No I don't. And you'd be just as annoyed if you were in my position."

"Whatever, you shouldn't get mad about something you didn't do." She came out, clothed but looking at her clothes with a frown. "Fuck I hate using used clothes after a shower, especially when they're covered in zombie blood."

"Then take them off." I pointed out, but she went a slight shade of pink as she raised a brow, "Not in front of me, stupid."

"Meh, I'm going downstairs, I want beer. See ya." She shrugged while walking by and leaving a flowery scent as she passed, that same one that one morning, and left the apartment. I went to go rinse off my hair, since it was getting itchy. The water was cold, but I didn't care.

... ... ... ***Rikki POV*** ... ... ...

"How was your shower, m'dear?" I grinned at Ro who just giggled, "Mine was fine."

"I heard Nick and Coach from next door; must've been _quite_ the party!" She cackled as Coach just frowned and shook his head at us.

"You kids ain't funny, you hear me? Not funny at all." Coach spoke in a flat tone, but it appeared he couldn't keep a frown on too long, especially when we were smiling at him. His expression softened with a small headshake, clearly still unimpressed.

"You love us." I smiled at the big guy, who just ruffled my hair as he walked by to go talk to Bernie, who had set up beers for us again, so I followed. Looking around, everyone had someone that they liked, since Ro didn't complain to me about Luke. It made me to wonder if I should've just give up and see what Nick had to say about anything. Wait, I didn't say that. "Hey Bernie, can I have a glass?"

She nodded, almost as if hurry up with me and continue her conversation with Coach. I started to wonder what old guys even say to pick up other old chicks. Giggling a little at the thought of exchanging denture advice, even though Coach wasn't that old by social standards, I sat beside the jukebox. It had a cable for an iPod, so I rushed back upstairs to the apartment my bag was left in. Nick was still there, but clothed and sitting on the couch, lost in thought. But he looked up and held out his hand at me, then gestured for my drink. "Well, you can have a sip. I guess."

I found my bag and dug around in it for my iPod. I turned to see Nick holding an empty glass, but decided to not be annoyed like I wanted to be. "Well, Bernie's got the alcohol flowing downstairs...want to come?"

"Nah." Nick shook his head and looked back at the ceiling.

"What...too busy thinking of your shower?" I asked, at little teasingly, but his head snapped up with a glare as he stood up. "Yup, thought so. Let's go."

* * *

After people started dancing around drunkenly for an hour or so, and people began to disappear to go wherever with 'their person', Bernie and I were chattering a little while Nick and Coach were back on good terms and playing a card game. Every now and then, I'd hear Nick chuckle since they were betting, and Coach seemed to be losing.

"So listen, girl, you're how old?" Bernie had a glazed look in her eyes and a smile that made me feel all homely and stuff. But being a manager of a place like this in its heyday, I guess you've got to be that friendly. She suited Coach perfectly.

"Nineteen." I answered after gulping down yet another glass of beer. And she just looked over at the table the two men were sitting at.

"You're okay with the age difference?" She asked; her accent made me wonder why everyone in the Smither's area thought they were in the south. Farming doesn't mean you should talk like that. I just looked at her, questioningly. "With Nick, I mean."

"Oh...Oh! No, that's not what's going on." I shook my head as she gave a small smile, the kind my mom used to give me when I protested against liking Jeremy in high school. "What? It isn't."

"Mmhm." She grunted a little, but still with a smile that resembled knowing. I just gave up at that point, and didn't want to make things awkward. "Let's say it _was_ like that, would you be okay with it?"

"Uh...mm...I don't know. I mean he's like...eight years younger than my dad was." I cringed at little. I really didn't have enough time to mourn my parents, or any other family that I wasn't sure about at the whole start of this mess, so I never bothered until I heard the word '_was_'. I gulped another beer down. But after that, she put a comforting hand on my arm.

"Sweetie, I think you've had enough." She smiled a little. "It's probably time to go to bed anyways."

Not wanting to protest that I could have more, I just nodded, stood up and walked to the jukebox to turn off my iPod that was playing a Pantera song. The guys looked up at the sudden silence with an unasked question on their faces. "Okay...uh...anywhere in particular?"

"There's bed's in those apartments...though I'd be careful not ta disturb any of your little pals." She gave a small warning with a little grin. I nodded as I jogged up there, wanting to sleep on a proper bed. The apartment I chose surprisingly had no one in it, at all. So I flopped comfortably on the mattress, which might as well have been a cloud.

My lips trembled and I was shivering, but it wasn't from the cold. Mentally saying 'fuck it', the tears fell and continued to fall. But there was a small knock on the door and I heard Bernie's clouded out voice. So I wiped the tears away and opened the door.

"Do you want your clothes washed? I'm collecting laundry, and I have some PJ's if you need them." I just nodded as I changed quickly, not looking at her, and handed her the grimy-feeling clothes I had on. She just smiled softly as she gave a nod and walked off. "Have a good night, Rikki."

"Mhm. You too, Bernadette." I smiled softly as I went back to the bed, but then I groaned a little, because I need to go to the bathroom. So I did. As I washed my hands, and face, I felt that stinging again. Tears are annoying things, since they show up when you don't want them, but you feel better when you let them go. With my blurry vision, I wandered back through the dimly lit apartment and bumped into a person that smelled of Old Spice. Since that was what Jeremy always smelled like, that didn't help anything with my crying. I looked up to see Nick, who had a soft confusion on his face as he stared at me for a moment before talking.

"Rikki?" Nick's voice mumbled slightly, with the vague smell of beer. "I didn't know you were in here, uh...yeah, I walked in on a few people. And I thought that this room was-"

I didn't care anymore at that point, so I basically threw myself in his arms. He was surprised, to say the least. He pulled away a little at first and looked at me, with hands on my waist, almost like he was worried, but more because he was confused.

"You okay?" He asked, even though I thought it was obvious that I wasn't. "You drank too much."

"No I didn't. It's just..." I took a shaky sigh to try regain some composure I cursed myself for losing, as he apprehensively gave me an awkward hug. "I just- I..."

"You- don't have to talk." Nick's voice was far from comforting, but it felt like he was trying. That's all that mattered; besides, it wasn't like I could run in on Bandit and wreck her night because I broke at the seams over our family. One would think that was a good enough reason, but she had Jason, and she was probably all cried out by then. Nick's arms tightened around me before he let go. To admit it, I really didn't want him to let go, but I realized that I wasn't crying much anymore. "Uh...heh. You should probably go to bed. I'll...I'll sleep on the couch if you want. I was going to take the bed..."

"Stop being nice Nick, it's creeping me out." I half-laughed as I wiped the tears away. Nick shrugged with a corner of his lips turned up slightly. He moved closer again, and put his hands on my shoulders, and let his forehead rest on mine. He was taller than I remembered him being the last time he was standing so close. "Nick?"

"I can sleep with you if you'd like." He grinned at my vulnerability at the moment, and I blushed while pulling away, but his green eyes danced as he continued to gauge my reactions. Then he picked me up, knowing I was going to protest it, and went to sit on the bed with me still in his arms. "Hey, stop squirming, it's not like I'm going to rape you."

"Well, I could've walked to the bed myself." I grumbled, pink again, sitting on Nick's lap as he stared up at me with a flicker of interest. "And I didn't say you were going to. Besides, it's not rape if you like it, now is it?"

"Well, I was going to suggest that we could just talk, but that's boring. Besides, when you put it that way, I would almost say that you _wanted_-" Nick's sarcasm was quieted when I put a finger on his lips. I leaned in a little closer while readjusting myself on his lap to face him, and he looked a little caught off guard, but smirked a little anyways.

"Nick, you talk too much." I gave up at that point; I gave up remembering that we were in the middle of an apocalypse, and denying anything to myself, even if I was supposed to be married by then. So I kissed him before I changed my mind. It was like that brief moment in the bathroom all over again, but this time, it didn't stop there.

* * *

**A/N: Oh ho, naughty Rikki. LOL. Hope you enjoy Nick being straight and not with Ro. I WAS SNEAKY! I did this in class, while looking like I was doing my work. But I did do **_**some**_** work. ;D Sorry it's real long. :)**


	12. Different

**A/N: Woot. Chapter twelve already! Time to get a move on!**

* * *

**Chapter Twelve: Different**

I woke up the next morning, snuggled against Nick and realizing that it wasn't some fucked up dream. I didn't feel hungover since Bernie didn't let me drink more than six beers. I scooted over, then Nick started to squirm around in his sleep, grunting once before I realized he didn't look like himself. His poker face was gone when he was asleep, and his uneasy look of that night in the Pineridge library flashed back, when he tried to say he wasn't having a nightmare. So I slipped back in bed and rested my head on a pillow, close to him. He still looked uneasy, but his fidgeting stopped when I lightly put my hand on his bicep, and his eyes shot open.

"Are you okay?" I asked, sincerely curious and a little concerned, cautiously placing a hand on his cheek. He slept like that most of the time, except when we were all crammed on a bed in the boat.

"Rikki?" Nick's eyes were slightly wide, from the shock of waking up abruptly as he put a hand on mine, but to take mine off. I figured it'd be that way in the morning. "Care to explain?"

"You couldn't possibly have been _that_ drunk. You barely had eight beers." I moved away to sit up and pull on the oversized tank top Bernie had lent me. Looking back at him, he just shrugged. "Asshole."

"You know it." Nick shrugged as he sat up and pulled me back under him. I wasn't in the mood to be confused by his actions at that moment. Especially when I was trying to be considerate, since the last time he opened up, I fucked it up. That's probably why he wouldn't tell me, I didn't take it seriously last time. "That's why you _guess_ you like me, right?"

"Shut up." I grumbled, "I was just trying to help."

He sat up so I could, with a strange look in his eyes. "With what?"

"You always sleep like that. Fidgeting around and groaning and stuff, then you wake up and pretend that you didn't have a nightmare. Why?" I rested my back against the wall. He remained silent as he found his boxers and slipped them on. He still had that strange look in his eyes when he looked back.

"Why were you crying yesterday? Did the 'I-can-give-two-shits' front wear off?" He swallowed a little, with the look still in place. It was weird that he didn't look sarcastic in any way for once, but I shrugged anyways. Then I realized that's why he didn't tell anyone what bothers him besides the people around him. They never told him anything but he's an asshole. "Oh. Okay then. Whatever."

"My family and friends are dead, all I have left is my sister and a few new friends that I'm trying not to get so close to, just in case. We're all waiting to die one way or another. Then there's you. I don't know what the hell to do with you." I muttered, not looking at him, but his stare was on me again. And it didn't lift when I looked back at him.

"You know, I feel bad for the things I've done. It was entertaining, so I stuck with it, until I had nothing left worthwhile enough to care for it. Then there was all of you. I mean, in all honesty and if you tell a soul I swear to God, you guys are the closest thing I've had that resembles a family in any way..." Nick pulled on a t-shirt and stood up. "Fucked up, right?"

I just sighed, wondering what to do at that point, so I smiled a little. "Well, that's a start."

"I dream I wake up alone. I don't like it. Then I hate the fact that I don't like to be alone anymore." Nick grumbled as he started to walk to the door. "That's even more fucked up."

I stayed quiet as I followed him and slipped in front of him, making him stop. His eyes were tinged an ever so slight red, but he had no emotion showing. _What a way to wake up, confession city_. I just hugged him, trying to figure out what to say. He hugged me back for a few minutes before letting go and walking out of the apartment. He muttered angrily, but it was probably at himself. I don't think he ever opened up that much, even to the others.

"Yeah, real smart Rikki." I sighed to myself, wondering if I fucked anything up. I walked out of there too, to go find Bernie and see if clothes were done.

... ... ...

"Morning, Rikki." I smiled sleepily at Bernadette; she was up and about, fixing up breakfast. Everyone was sitting around; Nick was quietly playing pool by himself, turning only to glance at me. Everyone else was chattering away and smoking some weed or a cigarette. There was a plate of rolled joints, nothing spectacular, but enough to make me more than happy to see it. I noticed that Ellis wasn't downstairs, but Kay and everyone else was. "Wanna go wake up Mr. Sleepy, Rikk?"

"Uh, sure...where're my clothes?" I asked before going back up the steps.

"You didn' see them? They're on the chair outside your door." I just nodded as she continued, "Lee told us everything we need ta know, so we're leaving after breakfast. Jus lettin' you know."

I walked up the steps, wondering which room Ellis was sleeping in, but found my clothes faster. So after I changed, I heard mild snoring in the apartment next door to the one I slept in. I found him sprawled out on the bed, with his hat in his face and a blanket covering his lower body. He was well built, and for that reason, I blushed a little before going to prod him awake.

"Oi, wake up Ellis!" I poked at his face, and he grumbled sleepily, turning and his hat fell off. "Ellis. Hey man, get up."

"Uhnn...five more minutes." He groaned sleepily. It was like waking up a little kid, so that was probably why Kay and him got on so well.

"Ellis, sweetie, we gotta go soon, so get your sleepy-ass outta bed." I pulled a little at the sheets, careful not to pull them off altogether, and he pulled them back while opening his weary eyes. "Morning!"

"Nnn, why we gotta leave so early?" He grumbled, wiping at his eyes, trying to wake up.

"Because the sooner the better." I shrugged, starting to walk towards the door to open it. The air was starting to smell like cooked things. "Besides, it's not that early..."

"Can I at least have some bacon?" He mumbled before he yawned. I smiled a little, it reminded me of waking up my cousin.

"Ellis, from the smell of it, you can have more than just bacon." I smiled as he sniffed a little, and hopped out of bed, disregarding that it was me since he wasn't wearing anything but his hat. I look away, a little embarrassed. "Uh..."

"What?" Ellis looked confused, then looked down and chuckled as he pulled a sheet to cover himself, "Oops. Ah well, not like I'm bad to look at or anythin'..."

"Just get ready. Jeez." I walked out of the room to go join the breakfast crew, with my backpack at my feet. Everyone ate with little to no chatter.

...

"Okay everyone!" Luke spoke up, "Everyone ready!"

"I guess"-"Sort of"-"Not really"

"Whatever, we're going. Everyone gather your things; take a bottle or something if you want. There's smokes over there and don't forget this shit." He motioned to the plate that still had joints on it. Everyone scrambled to take what they could carry in their bags.

"HEY!" Jude spouted, her ears turned upwards, "Hear that? It's a fucking helicopter, dude!"

"Well what're we waiting for? Let's get out there!" Nick slung his ammo-less gun on his back and chucked his backpack to Luke, since he wasn't carrying anything.

... ...

Once were scrambled outside, the helicopter hovered as it appeared to be looking for something, probably people. We raced outside, shooting off a few rounds of a pistol. The lights flashed for a few seconds before it landed on the road.

"Holy shit, it worked." I was half amazed that the helicopter looked equipped to handle our weight. Hopping in all at once, the helicopter wasted no time in going in the air again. Once inside, the hatch closed as we stood there, wondering where the hell we were going to go.

"Hmm...I wonder where he's takin' us." Ellis looked curiously around at his dark surroundings. "At least I got ta eat."

"Who cares, as long as they take us closer to Ontario, I'm not complaining." Kay shrugged, but Ellis responded only by hugging her. They were cute, and I felt happy just looking at them. It somehow made me feel awkward.

* * *

After a few hours or so of sitting in quiet, we got curious as to who was flying the thing. Ellis was the first to climb up the small ladder and down the small hallway to a door that was open.

"Hey." Jason spoke loudly; in case they soldier flying the helicopter couldn't hear him. He was really pale and wore sunglasses, probably part of his uniform, and a helmet with a headset built in on them, and the uniform was a deep shade of green that sharply contrasted the light colour of his skin. His response was a gun to the face, and a quick response.

"Get back, civilian. I'm not sure you're a friendly or not. And I'm not taking any chances. At least not-" He spoke in a firm voice as Jason's eyebrows shot up as he stepped back, with the rest of us. He looked like he was going to say something else when he started coughing violently, and blood started to come out before this strange green goop dripped from his mouth. He looked at it, his glasses fell off, and his stern look was gone as he looked at his bile that was on his lap. Suddenly, his head drooped before snapping back up within the minute, growling like a hunter.

"Holy shit." I didn't think of anything else until my hand pulled the trigger of the magnum I didn't realize I drew out. In a split second, the blood spurted out from his head as he gave an animal-growl, so I shot again, cutting off the growling. He fell off the chair, revealing a large part of his side was missing and stained red, like he had been partially devoured.

"What the hell!" Leo spoke up, staring at me in shock, "You shot the pilot!"

"I shot a zombie." I tried to reason, trying not to stutter as I pointed out that his side was eaten out. "It's not like he could've landed us back to safety. Look."

"Shit... Nick!" Ellis looked at Nick who just shook his head a little before sitting down and scanning the controls while keeping the wheel steady. "Nice shooting, Rikki."

"Uh, thanks." I looked at Nick with the intent of asking how he was keeping the helicopter from crashing. But Ellis explained for him.

"Gettin' across the country in _helicopter_," Ellis looked at Nick with a tint of sarcasm as he said the word; Nick just gave the slightest hint of a grin, "and most of tha pilots decided to be a zombie before landing anywhere, all that leads to trying ta learn how to fly the damned thing yourself, 'course, sometimes you don't know you're crashing until the it's too late to get out scott-free. There was this one time tha-"

"Not the time Ellis!" Ro's voice was off as there was a quick feeling of falling before an abrupt thump that made us all fall on the floor as we looked up at Nick, who was rubbing his neck from the jolt. We were quiet for a few minutes, completely stunned that it wasn't a bad crash landing, since everyone was alive.

"Well, looks like we made it just in time." Nick's voice was collected, but he didn't look very happy as he pointed at a gauge that was blinking red before turning off, "No fuel left, and I forgot to tell you guys to hold on to something."

"Asshole. I bit my tongue." Jude groaned, holding the front of her mouth and half glaring at Nick. The rest of the group grumbled something unfriendly in their own ways while standing up. Nick just shrugged.

"Not my problem. Should we go?" Nick spoke flatly as he opened up the door and hopped out, spreading his arms and motioning around him. Everyone just straightened themselves a little, shrugging and followed Nick's lead. But before I hopped out, I looked back at the body of the pilot. There was a combat rifle sitting beside him, so I grabbed the rifle and rounds he had on him, with the pistol and hurried to catch up to the group that didn't bother to wait a few seconds.

"Where are we?" Rochelle asked as she looked around. We landed in the middle of a street in front of a car wash called Mr. Sparkle Car Wash. "Hm..."

"Well, I don't think we're taking this thing anywhere else from here." Jason observed smoke appearing from underneath the helicopter, "Maybe we should get away from it."

We walked around, with some melee weapons and a few pistols, save for my rifle that had a few precious rounds, so I tried to make each one count. The street corner we were on was labelled 59th Avenue and Ray Nelson Dr.

"Well, left or right?" Jude looked back at us, holding hands with Leo.

"Probably right." I guessed at, trying to figure out which direction I was facing. "Hm, I wonder what province we're in."

"I think we're in Alberta, or Saskatchewan." Leo looked back with a push of his glasses. He really needed to get ones that stayed on his face, because up until then, it was a mystery how they managed to stay on when he was fighting off the infected.

"Is it just me, or is it too quiet here?" Luke looked unsure as he stared at the empty streets, besides the abandoned cars that lined the streets. "Maybe there's no zombies because they evacuated in time?"

"Or maybe they just don't know we're here yet." Nick shrugged; his sardonic tone back in place. Everyone seemed to be used of his pessimistic attitude towards everything, since there was no comment but a few eye rolls. There was a distant cry of a horde from way down the street. "Oh look, here they come now."

"Yay..." Rochelle sighed, lifting her pistol up with an air of annoyance as the zombies closed the distance between our group.

.

After making our way through a head-bashing, brain-matter bonanza, we found ourselves in front of a mall called Lloyd Mall. There was one lone blue car idling in front of the doors that were boarded up. Looking at one another, we made our way across the silent parking lot.

"The hell?" Ellis looked questioningly at the parked car and examined the door that was open. He grimaced as he pulled away, finding a finger with a ring on it still, it was still peach and bleeding. "Looks like there _were_ people here not too long ago."

"Hey, turn that car off." I spoke up, knowing that I heard something and unsure of what. Once the engine was cut off, I heard it again; faint crying. "You hear that?"

Everyone looked like they were trying to hear what I heard, until Coach gave a small gruff. "Sounds like a witch."

"I don't know about that Coach. It sounds...small." I looked at everyone, trying to see if anyone wanted to come investigate. When no one responded, I turned on my heel anyways, curious to see what was making the crying noise. I felt sure that it wasn't a witch.

There was a safe room door that was in the Zeller's entrance, and the crying got more audible, since the door wasn't closed. I began to have second thoughts, but continued looking anyways. I felt a presence behind me as I turned to see Bandit and Kay close behind. Pushing the door more open and keeping my pistol ready for anything, and when I didn't see anything at first, I turned on my flashlight. The crying was definitely not a witch. There were two bodies lying in a bloody heap with an equally bloody machete beside them, and a little girl with her head buried in the chest of a dead man, her crying muffled. Looking back at the two that followed me, there was the rest of the group instead that seemed to notice that there wasn't anything to freak out about. I looked back the little girl, who didn't notice any of us, until Ellis sneezed. Her head snapped up with a frantic look in her eyes, tears still falling.

"W-who are you?" Her small voice quivered, her shiny brown hair falling across her face as she stared apprehensively at us, then back to the people she was crying on. I assumed it was her parents. I advanced a few steps towards her, not wanting to scare her. I held out a hand towards her.

"Well, I'm Rikki. What's your name?" I spoke a little softly. She looked kind of like Bandit when she was little; so when she brushed her hair off her face it caught me off guard. She didn't look any older than eight or so, maybe younger.

"I'm Maddy." Her eyes had really long eyelashes that fluttered as she squeezed a few more tears out before she calmed down a little. She stood up and gave a weak smile as she picked up a bloodied teddy bear and walked slowly towards my outstretched hand. "You look kind of like mommy, Rikki. Well, not _really_, but kind of..."

She gestured at the bodies to confirm my feeling of them being her parents at some point. We walked over to observe the bodies before Bernie knelt down to close their eyes. We were quiet until Ellis gave a light chuckle and pointed at the man's body, Maddy's dad. "Hey Nick, you look kinda like this poor fella."

Maddy looked up at Nick and smiled like she recognized him. Nick rolled his eyes, and examined the body himself as we did too. I didn't quite see the resemblance, but Maddy did, because she slipped a small hand in Nick's, smiling away.

"I'm just going to stick around you then, Mr. Nick." She smiled weakly, with a sparkle in her eyes. Nick pulled his hand away from her, and it looked like he was trying not to look annoyed. So Maddy tried again, and again, until her eyes welled up with tears again before running over to me and holding my hand instead. "He's mean."

"Yeah, he's an a- meany." I caught myself before swearing, "How old are you Maddy?"

"Six! I'm seven in...um...two weeks! How old are you?" She looked up at me with big hazel eyes. For the first time, I realized that September was probably over, and that my birthday went by already, unnoticed since I forgot to bring it up.

"I'm twenty, I guess. You guys, I forgot about my birthday." I felt surprised, and probably looked it since everyone else shared my expression. Maddy seemed like a smart little girl, since most six year olds were probably dead if they were in the same situation as she was put in.

"Well then, Happy belated Birthday!" Ellis chimed as everyone nodded or repeated his words. I smiled a little, but looked back at Maddy. I was curious as to what happened to her. We were going to leave her in that room, with her dead parents and no hope; because we almost thought she was a witch. "You're almost legal by Nick's standards!"

"Not funny, Elle." I shook my head at the group that chuckled a little. "Maddy, what happened?"

There was a far off look in her eyes as she turned her stare at the bodies, "Well, me and mommy and daddy and Abby were at home, but then daddy said we gotta get food 'cause there's no more left. So daddy hit a few people and mommy did too, but they were all bleeding and stuff. And then when we drove here, mommy and daddy turned around and started to go like this:" Maddy made a face that looked quite frightening, since she wasn't making it up. But then her eyes welled up with tears again, as she continued. "a-and then they t-tried to eat us, but I ran away in here, and I could hear Abby crying and I was crying and then I didn't... I didn't hear Abby n-no more. Then they came in here and I found this and stuck it in their heads. And then you guys showed up."

"Holy sh- crap." Ellis stared at Maddy, who was clinging on to me and bawling her eyes out by then. "Hey, should we cover them and say a prayer or somethin'?"

Everyone nodded, but I couldn't bring myself to agree with the prayer. I never had been religious, but more of an agnostic. There were tarps piled in the corner, so Coach and Luke lined up the bodies, and Rochelle brought in a small bundle of bloody blankets, with tears in her eyes as she laid it beside the larger bodies as she spoke. "Well, somebody say something..."

"Oh Lord, these souls are in your hands now-" Bernadette had her head bowed as with everyone else, but Maddy was looking at me awkwardly, so I bowed my head as well, though I didn't listen to the prayer. I joined in with the automatic unison end though, "Amen."

"We should get out of here." I pointed out, "I don't know about you guys, but I don't wanna be in the middle of town too long."

Everyone nodded as we covered the bodies with a blue tarp as we looked at each other, while restocking on ammo that was sitting on a table, and grabbing better weapons. Maddy insisted on holding my hand. I found leg holsters, so I wrapped them on each side, keeping two magnums sitting in each side, with the rifle slung across my back. After everyone was ready, we left the safe house.

* * *

We were walking along the TransCanada highway, not wanting to stray away from the road that would take us across to Ontario. Along the way, we had carefully avoided a witch, blew up a few boomers and got through a few hordes of the rancid smelling zombies.

"Hey, Maddy?" I decided to ask where we were, since none of us knew. Maddy looked up at me with her big eyes. "Where are we?"

"In Lloydminster." She answered, as if she was proud that she remembered her town. I remembered the town name, mostly because when I was in Geography, that town confused the living hell out of me. Were we in Alberta or Saskatchewan? It didn't matter. What really mattered was how we were going to get to Ontario with a child in tow. It was getting dark out fast, and we had been walking for an hour or so. The top priority of the moment was to find a safe house that could fit thirteen people at least. "Where're you from?"

"Prince Rupert." I answered shortly; I wasn't used of little kids I didn't know. She didn't look like she knew what I was talking about, so I explained it simply. "It's far from here."

"Then why are you here?" Maddy was full of questions, the one thing that bothered me about kids, otherwise, she was adorable to look at. I just shrugged. "I'm happy you found me."

"Yeah?" I smiled down at her, an eyebrow half raised. "I'm glad too."

"Hey, we got a safe house!" Jason whooped, while pointing at a building that looked like a sort of bunker, hiding a little in the brush. It was cement and brandished the trademark red steel door. We ran towards it, slamming the door behind us.

"Safe house?" Maddy looked at me for the answer.

"A place where we can rest up without being too disturbed by the zombies, sweetie. I don't know about you, but I'm tired. You should get some sleep too." I yawned, feeling the suppressed drowsiness catch up with me. Maddy scrunched her eyebrows together, making a face that clearly told me she wasn't sleepy. I sat down on a sleeping bag, opening it for Maddy to slip into.

"I'm not sleepy." She protested, but she yawned despite herself. Realizing that I noticed her yawn, she looked at me with a hint of defeat. "Can I sleep with you?"

"Oh, um...sure you can, kiddo." I guided Maddy into the sleeping bag, letting her use my sweater as a pillow, while keeping my jean jacket on. She looked up at me with a sleepy smile before yawning again and going to sleep. After a few minutes, I heard soft breathing. I looked at the Jude and Bandit. "Okay, _now_ I guess you guys can light up."

"Oh thank god." Jude pulled out a joint that she had stored away when I told her not to light up around Maddy. Bandit, Jason and Leo were right beside her when they smelled it.

I stood up and went to go by Rochelle, who was chattering happily with Luke. But she smiled at me when I sat down, so did Luke.

"Hey, what's up?" I sighed, resting my head on the wall behind me. It was kind of chilly in the safe house, since it was cement an all.

"Nothing at all." Ro shrugged. "Just talking to Luke about stuff."

"I see." I had the feeling that she wanted to just talk to Luke, but I didn't know how to just stand up and leave her to it without looking rude. I tried anyways. "Well then...I'll leave you to that?"

.

Everyone was asleep, and I was up keeping watch. As tired as I felt, I didn't want to sleep, so I was staring outside for a few hours. It was very quiet out there, of course there was the occasional zombie that found the door, but it was peaceful.

"Rikki?" I heard Nick's voice. When everyone was just starting to sleep a couple of hours beforehand, Maddy woke up for a few brief moments to question why I wasn't sleeping beside her. I told her I was keeping watch, and she crawled over to Nick and snuggled in by him. So he must've been confused. "Why's Maddy sleeping here?"

"She likes you, Nick. You look like her dad, apparently." I shrugged, suppressing a yawn. Nick carefully slipped out of Maddy's loose grip, so she remained sleeping. He stood up and walked over to me, standing by the chair I was sitting on.

"You can go sleep now if you want." Nick glanced down at me, and I felt a little uncomfortable. I nodded though, and stood up to walk over to the sleeping bag Maddy was snoozing on. But Nick lightly grabbed my wrist, so I turned to him first. "What're we gonna do with her?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, she's a kid. How long do you think she'll really last?" Nick spoke flatly, while nodding over to Maddy. I looked at her small sleeping figure back to Nick's non-telling face. I sighed, knowing what he meant; it seemed impractical that a child could be towed across a country in midst of a **zombie apocalypse**. Then again...

"There's like...twelve people. If she sticks herself in the middle of us, then she'll be okay." I reasoned, but I think I was trying to convince myself just as much as I was trying to convince Nick. His expression didn't change and he shrugged without a comment, letting go of my wrist that I forgot he was holding. I looked back at Maddy, and decided I was going to sleep near her. I sat down on the cold concrete tried to make myself sleep, but it was so damned cold in the safe house that it made it very difficult.

"Hey, use that sleeping bag I was using." Nick didn't look back at me and kept his gaze on whatever was outside through the bars of the safe house.

I looked beside me and didn't see one, but there was a blue sleeping bag under Maddy's red one; she must have rolled on to it. I sighed, trying to gently shift Maddy so I could pull the sleeping bag out from under her. After slipping into the sleeping bag I fell into a deep, dreamless slumber. We'd had a rare good breakfast, successfully crashed a helicopter, and found a little girl that we were entitled to protect for as long as possible; all in one day.

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**A/N: So yeah, probably **_**the**_** worst filler chapter I've done so far, but it gets things moving along for me a **_**lot**_**. Sooo...review? It'd make me real happy. (:**


	13. Roar

**A/N: So, here's another chapter for y'all. I'm going to do my very very **_**very**_** best, since from here on in will get...fun. XD

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**Chapter Thirteen: Roar**

So, we still weren't out of Lloydminster, and we had a kid in tow, so we had to find a way to get to Ontario as fast as we could. When everyone woke up, due to cold or whatever, we started to try plan out what we were going to do.

"Okay, well I still think that we should jack an 18 wheeler, get as much gas as we can and get as far away from here as possible." Jude reasoned, looking at each of us, "Anyone know how to drive an 18 wheeler?"

"Don't hurt to try." Coach shrugged, looking from one to another as he spoke, "If anyone has a better idea, better speak up now, 'cause I like how this kid thinks."

Everyone was quiet as we shrugged, having nothing better to contribute. "Well let's go then."

"Maddy, kiddo, don't forget that machete of yours." I nodded at Maddy, who looked grimly at the blade that was crusted with blood. Grabbing our weapons, we gathered at the door and reviewed our plan. There was a parking lot across the street, with a line up of trucks to choose from.

"Okay, so we'll pick that red one." Coach nodded at a gleaming red truck, but the group kind of cringed as each had their own choices.

"Nah...I like that blue one." Bandit pointed at the truck beside it.

"No, that green one." Jude frowned at another truck.

"How about black?" Kay shrugged, wanting everyone to stop fighting over colours and go with a shade instead.

"No dudes...how about we get that one. It looks kind of like Optimus Prime." I nodded at the truck on the end of the row that did look like the Autobot. Everyone looked at one another before shrugging in agreement. "Okay, we got our pick. Now when we leave, find as many jerry cans and fill them up. We'll see how far we can make it."

Everyone nodded as the bar to the door came off and we scattered in groups of two. Ro tagged along with me and Maddy, who was on my back, and was surprisingly light. I dropped her in front of the truck, where Ellis was headed.

"Look after her for a bit, will ya?" I asked the southerner, who looked slightly surprised as he nodded.

"C'mon kiddo, I'll show you how ta hotwire a truck." Ellis chuckled as Maddy begun her barrage of questions. Smiling slightly, I went with Rochelle to scavenge around for some gas. The hordes seemed to know we were trying to leave, since they were anything but quiet to come for us.

Everyone was shooting and running in different directions to try find some gas. The sign read 'No Gas' but it didn't hurt to try. Actually, scratch that. It hurt a bunch, since the zombies were quite aggressive this time around and I was getting kicked and punched left-right and center. Ro picked up a can and hollered over the disappearing group of infected. Making a dash to see if the truck was ready to go, we found the others guarding the truck. Altogether, there was only two that could be found, there was no success for the others. Ellis was already working on the rig to get it running, since we'd have no idea which key went to which truck. We held our breath as the engine roared to life. To our surprise, no zombies picked up on that sound and we turned back to the truck, waiting to be let in the back.

"There's not even a quarter tank here." Ellis yelled as he hopped out with Maddy in his arms and running to the back to open the back of the truck, plopping her in and continuing. "How far you reckon that'll get us?"

"Maybe the next town over...at least." Bandit looked further down the road, trying to make an estimate. "I don't think that those two cans will help much..."

"Maybe there'll be a gas station wherever we end up..." I shrugged, trying to sound optimistic. Every nodded like they were trying too, as we climbed in the truck so we wouldn't waste more gas by idling. "Maybe we should've put in the gas _before_ we started the truck...Ellis."

"What? Ah crap. Sorry y'all. We can put them in when we run outta gas." Ellis smiled lightly as he hopped in the drivers seat.

"That won't take us far...I mean...look at these small cans compared to this big truck..." I emphasized my point by holding up the two jerry cans I held against the trucks size.

"Good point. Let's go!" Jason smirked as he waved and closed the sliding door, shutting us in the darkness.

"Where's the light?" Jude's voice came from somewhere in the corner. Everyone else started talking all at once in the confused darkness as the truck started to move.

"Dunno."

"Ow"

"Dammit, it's dark. Where'd I put my flashlight?"

"Hey don't swear. Kid. Remember?"

"Ahh...I don't like the dark, Rikki...Please find a light.."

"It's okay, kiddo."

"Well this is gonna be fun..."

* * *

We were shoved into the back, while Nick and Jason were up front with Ellis, who was still driving, and singing probably much to Nick's disdain. I heard Jason join in too. Everyone else was relatively quiet as we sat in the near darkness, granted there was one light in the back that was dim and barely lit anything after twenty or so minutes of scrambling to find it. If I had to guess, I'd say we were driving for about an hour or so.

"Where're we going, Rikki?" Maddy was leaning against me in the darkness, with her teddy in hand. I shrugged, since I really didn't know. "Can we listen to music?"

"Uh...I don't know kiddo..." I sighed, knowing that we didn't have CD's, and if we did, Maddy probably wouldn't like any of them. She lightly pulled at my jacket, as if to ask again without words. I remembered my iPod as I pulled it out, even though some of the songs weren't exactly kid-friendly. I handed it to her in the semi-dark and she grabbed it. She started deftly flipping through songs without me teaching her. "Uh...sorry if you don't like any of it."

"Are you kidding me? I _love_ Judas Priest!" Her smile seemed to glow in the dark. I was slightly surprised, but remembered that she was about the age I was when I started listening to my dad's music. I just smiled as I playfully ruffled her hair, "I hate all that stupid stuff...like Justin Beaver or whatever...Dad said he's a stupid, so I believe him."

"I'm proud of you." I was already beginning to become attached to the little girl, since she seemed quite reasonable so far. She just remained quiet as she leaned her head on my shoulder, quietly humming the chorus of 'Ram it Down'. I relaxed a little. Not even a minute after I shut my eyes, I felt the rig slowing down and a stream of curses from the front. After the engine stopped altogether, there was a slam of the door while the other one closed normally, and a loud scrape of metal as the door to the back slid up so fast that it almost closed again. "...What's up?"

"Not the gas level." Nick sighed. I realized it was probably him that was swearing. "Looks like the road trip ends here."

"Well, at least we're in a town of some sort." Rochelle hopped out of the back with her guns in tow as she examined her new surroundings, with the rest of us. "Sign says we're in North Battleford."

We were all quiet as we made our way down the road. It was foggy, slightly raining and really cold. I looked down at Maddy, who was wrapping the iPod headphones around it and shivering while doing so. "How're you, kid?"

"I'm okay...it's just...chilly." Maddy smiled upwardly while handing my iPod back to me. "I think I gotta be listening out for those things too, huh?"

We were walking along the highway, trying to find a gas station. Leo stopped while walking ahead of us and pointed at something we couldn't see through the fog. "Look!"

Once we caught up, we saw what he was pointing at. It was a passenger train, and it looked perfectly fine. I realized what he was thinking before he said it. "Oh...Leo, you're not thinking of driving that thing, are you?"

"Why not?" Leo shrugged, making his way towards the train, shifting his backpack as he got closer before rounding the corner as he continued to speak. "Anyone know how to drive a train?"

.

He came rounding around the corner as fast as he could with a pale look on his face and telling us to be quiet with a variety of gestures and no words.

"What is it Lassie? Who fell down the well?" I spoke quietly enough as I pantomimed talking to a dog, with the high-pitched voice and all. Everyone gave a light chuckle as Leo rolled his eyes and took a breath before talking.

"There is a tank around that corner, it looks like it's sleeping or something." Leo spoke quietly, "But I'm not sure."

"Well then...let's shoot the shit outta it." Ellis proclaimed before running, but I held his arm before he got to run off.

"We got a kid to worry about right now, if we don't plan how we'll shoot it, we'll be risking her." I pointed out, while putting a hand on her head to emphasize how small she was.

"Hey..." Maddy frowned while holding up her machete as if to protest, but she looked confused just as she spoke. "Wait...what's a tank?"

"A really fuh- really big zombie." I explained, and she looked sideways at me, like I was lying or something. "Like the Hulk."

"Ah!" Maddy's eyes widened as her face turned into a look of fear.

"Well, it's not going to go away anytime soon, so maybe we should just go for it." Nick shrugged, pulling out his AK while reloading. We all followed quietly, ready to ambush the tank. What we saw was quite startling.

The tank was crouched down and gently prodding at a flower it must've squished, with a look that hinted at sadness. We glanced briefly at one another before Nick shot first, and the tank gave out a large yelp in surprise before thumping away behind the front of the train it was close to.

"What the hell?" Nick's eyebrows rose as half of the group followed with their guns at the ready. The tank heard the footsteps and ran around the train again and stood behind the end of the train.

"Uh...do tanks normally do that?" Maddy's face turned into confusion, with the rest of us wondering the same thing. I swear it was whimpering. Everyone else noticed, and Maddy was gone before I could notice let alone say anything.

"Maddy!" I exclaimed. Even though the tank wasn't retaliating, it didn't mean you go run up to it. "Maddy wait."

"Hiya, Mr. Tank!" Maddy waved from about ten feet away at the tank that was whimpering lightly as it looked at her gesture. I stood behind Maddy as the tank looked at my rifle, its body language signifying fear of sorts as it was aimed at it. Maddy hopped in front of my aim before I shot, and I mean a mere millisecond before my finger pulled the trigger, but stopped. "Don't!"

"Maddy!" I practically shouted, I came so close to shooting out her brains because of her choice. Needless to say, I wasn't exactly happy. "Get out of the way."

"It's not attacking!" Maddy countered. I could see that, but it wasn't like I was going to just accept it right on the spot. Maddy ran up to the tank and dropped her machete while putting a hand on its giant orange hand. "Don't worry Mr. Tank! We won't hurt you again, _right_?"

"Uh...?" We all didn't know how to react to the look she gave us with the acid tone in her voice when she said 'right'. It was like she was scolding us with one word. The tank just tilted his head with a deep, gruff grunt; as if it understood. Maddy climbed onto its shoulders while it stood up, smiling.

"See? He's okay!" Maddy proclaimed, while mildly snuggling its head as it looked up at her, probably as confused as the rest of us. "Can we keep him! Can we? Can we?"

"Maddy...I don't know sweetie..." I sighed, confused as fuck that we were actually in that position, thanks to a docile tank. "Most six year olds ask for a dog...a cat...something...not this!"

"Awwwweh...but he's so cute!" Maddy proclaimed again, snuggling as the tank gave another gruff sound, almost like a chuckle. It was hard to say, since the only sounds heard from a tank until that point was ear-deafening roars and growls. "Puh-lease!"

"Maddy, no. Where're we going to keep him?" I shouldn't have asked that, because it implied that I was giving in and going to let her keep a giant, deformed dead man that ought to have killed us by then.

"He can sit on top of the train!" Maddy explained. I looked at the rest of the group, wondering if they had any input on the subject at hand. Since no one really said anything, and their looks of surprise remained intact, I remained at a loss of words. I turned back to see that Maddy already was teaching the tank to climb up the back, to stand at the end. "Or he can stand right here!"

"Maddy..." I shook my head. I decided to humour her for the time being. It didn't take much to point out that we couldn't keep it around forever, since I seriously doubted that we'd be able to drag a tank into the safe zones we were headed to. Maddy just smiled at me.

"Okay then..." Rochelle just shook her head, as if the confusion would leave if she did that. Everyone else just had a look of uncertainty as a few people headed to the front to go figure out how to start the train up.

"Well...if you can teach that thing to kill stuff...we'd have a pretty good team. Wouldn't you say?" Leo was trying to accept that there would be a tank following around.

"I dunno...probably. But in all honesty, that thing's pretty defenceless. It was sad about that flower it squished." I shrugged, looking at the tank one last time before getting into the train with everyone else after picking up a complaining Maddy.

"I wanna sit with him!" Maddy was putting on a pouty face, but I disregarded it for the time being, trying to figure out how we were going to get anywhere in the train to begin with.

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**A/N: Yay! Another filler chapter for now! But I'm working away on the next chapter as you read this! :D R&R! **


	14. Gone

**A/N: Soo...I've like, totally changed my mind. Instead of less than 20 chapters, and the story took a little different turn than what I expected, since it keeps changing on how I want it to eventually pan out (not much, I promise) it'll be a little...ahem...much more than the 20 measly chapters I originally intended. Hope you're all okay with that... :D**

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**Chapter Fourteen: Gone**

Somehow, and don't ask me how, the train started to move. Quite slowly at first, but I was surprised anyways that we were going to make some real progress, granted no one fucked it up. The chairs were quite comfy and everyone seemed to think so too, since they were falling asleep or being really quiet, it was almost nice.

"Can I go see Fluffy? Can I?" Maddy tugged at my arm to get my attention.

"Fluffy?" I asked, obviously confused.

"Mr. Tank! I'm gonna call him Fluffy." Maddy nodded at rapid speed as she fidgeted in her seat, still tugging at my arm. I sighed, remembering that there was a rather meek tank on board. I had _no_ intentions of keeping it around, but clearly Maddy had other ideas. "Can we go see Fluffy now?"

"I...I guess so..." I sighed, standing up and having to keep up with the speedy little child. We were on the back cart as I watched Maddy climb up the behemoth's shoulder. Maddy was giggling as the tank just looked up at her, with a blank expression and a tongue lolling around. After a couple of minutes of poking him, Maddy stopped and looked like she was thinking of something.

"Rikki..." Maddy looked down at me, while absently playing with the tanks ears. "I'm hungry."

I realized that we didn't have much more food, besides a few cans of beans and two boxes of Kraft Dinner. I reached up for Maddy, who was back to giggling at the tank's reactions. "Hey, get down from there. I'll find something to eat."

"Can Fluffy come, too? He might be hungry." Maddy looked down at me with the biggest puppy-dog eyes she'd shown. I inhaled slowly, shaking my head. I did not want to deal with everyone freaking out if they were awake about bringing the tank inside the train. "Awwwwww...please?"

"Maddy, no." I sighed, getting brave and approaching the tank to reach up and get Maddy down. It poked me, with a meaty orange finger and a low grunt that sounded a lot like chuckling. Surprised, I frowned and tried again. It kept poking me, every time I tried to reach to get Maddy down. She was clearly enjoying it more than me. "Hey, big guy, you want me to shoot you?"

I felt a little twinge of guilt as I saw that the giant's face dropped from slightly amused to slightly intimidated. Something made me feel bad for the big guy, he really did seem defenceless and confused why people wanted to shoot him. I half chuckled at my assumption that it was a guy, making it look confused. "Maddy's gotta eat...I'll bring her right back after she does, sound okay?"

His expression didn't change, and I began to wonder if he still even knew what I was saying, or if he only reacted to tones of voice and actions. I wondered why I was even talking to a tank, because the closer we got to our destination (which still wasn't clear yet, since Leo was pretty secretive about it), the more uncomfortable I felt dragging a tank along for the ride. The tank poked me again.

"Do you even understand what I'm saying? One grunt for 'yes', two for 'no'. Or nod or something..." I shrugged, taking advantage of the time he stared blankly at me to grab Maddy down from its shoulders. He grunted once while nodding, but then gave a frown of sorts when he realized Maddy was standing behind me. It didn't matter what the tank thought, if at all, I didn't want Maddy to be so close to one. "Okay, well...we will be back..."

"Can't he come with us?" Maddy pleaded one last time.

"No. He just can't okay?" Maddy frowned at me, so I tried to explain. "Well, everyone's afraid of the tank-"

"Fluffy!" Maddy interjected.

"Fluffy, they're afraid of Fluffy because normally, things like him try to kill us. No one's quite okay with Fluffy being with us." I tried as best as I could.

"Well, they don't gotta be scared! He's real nice!" Maddy still wore a slight frown, and crossed her arms to show she was still against me. I sighed, it was at this point I didn't like kids. She was trying my patience out, and it was wearing thin.

"Maddy, Fluffy can't come with us for too long, otherwise other people will shoot him. Besides, we're going back out to see him after you eat, okay?" I tried to change up the subject, and it seemed to have worked. Maddy nodded and perked up again.

"Can we feed Fluffy?" I put two fingers on the bridge of my nose, since I felt a headache coming on. I grabbed my bag that had food in it and went to find a kitchen, if there was one. "Rikki?"

"No..." I started to think by then; if the zombies presumably ate people, what did the zombies like 'Fluffy' do for food? Somehow, I felt better not knowing, I figured that they'd eventually starve themselves out. Maddy stopped abruptly, but before she could even pout, I grabbed her hand and tugged her along with me anyways, clearly catching her off guard. "Let's go find something to cook with, okay?"

"Well...oh-kay..." Maddy sighed, still half frowning at me. We walked until we found a small room with an old looking stove and some pots and pans. There was a small fridge in the corner with some milk that was a day to expiring. Clearly, there were people on board not too long before we found it, since the milk seemed okay to use and there was still some butter left.

"Do you like KD?" I took out a box from my bag and shook it lightly, trying to make it look appetizing. I couldn't stand for the processed cheese crap. She nodded vaguely as she quietly picked at some loose threads on her sweater. "Okay then, just sit here, okay?"

"Why couldn't you come get me _after_ you made food?" Maddy pouted lightly, making me sigh again. It was going to be a _long_ trip to get Maddy safely across the rest of the country. I looked out the grimy window, the kitchen was in no condition to serve people being that dirty, and saw plains after plains, empty farm after empty farm. I couldn't tell if we were still in Saskatchewan or in Manitoba yet, but we were riding for at least an hour or so. I decided to cook for everyone, since the food was going scarce and I'd feel bad if only me and Maddy ate a box of KD to ourselves. The water was boiling so I poured the KD in and took out the cans of beans and a few more pans to heat them up too. After, I turned to Maddy to answer her; she still had a pout on her face.

"Because I don't wanna leave you with that- Fluffy." Why on earth did she name that thing Fluffy? It didn't have a single hair on it. "Just because he's '_nice_' doesn't mean I trust him...okay kiddo?"

"..." Maddy probably wanted to say a lot, but she didn't instead. We stood there for a good few minutes, her silence making me curious.

"Look, food's almost ready...you wanna wake up the rest so they can eat too?" I spoke softly to the little girl, trusting the safety of the train. Maddy nodded absently.

"Yeah, I gotta get Mr Snuggles anyways..." Maddy referred to her bloodied bear. "Who's driving the train?"

"I- uh...I don't know, actually." I shrugged, wondering myself for the first time since the train started moving. I turned to ask Maddy something, but she had already left the small kitchen. The train was quiet enough to hear her as she went to wake the others for eating the rest of our food. Two boxes of KD and some beans didn't seem like enough to feed thirteen people.

.

"Hey! Everyone!" Maddy's voice carried throughout the train car, getting a few grumbling responses or a head poking around their chairs. "Anyone hungry?"

"Hell, I'm starved." Ellis looked up from the chairs he stretched across, his head resting on Kay's lap. Everyone Maddy could see was nodding absently.

"Where's the glasses-man?" Maddy curiously inquired the whereabouts of Leo.

"He's driving the train. Don't know how, but he did it." Bandit shrugged, "What did Rikki cook?"

...

I picked up a few small bowls and cups and started dividing up the KD and beans. After the make-shift dinnerware seemed equally full, I grimaced. I hadn't cooked something so repulsive looking since I was four; and that was when I just threw anything together and it'd smell like toxins. There were a few forks and spoons, but there were still three people that needed something to eat with. I shrugged, since that was as good as it'd get and picked up a tray that carried ten of the odd meals. Maybe they could drink it from the cups or something.

Maddy walked in and stared up at me, with a small smile as she grabbed the pink cup that had beans and KD mixed together. She made a little face and looked back up at me.

"What? That's all we have." I shrugged, feeling a little grossed out too.

"You didn't have to mix it." Maddy grumbled lightly, picking at it before walking out of the room without grabbing the other two plates or offers to help me get them to the others. I sighed, but walked out, careful not to spill anything. Everyone was sitting around tiredly, and acknowledged my presence once they smelled the food.

"Dinner." I smiled lightly as I passed out the cups and small bowls as the others pulled down the fold-up tables. I passed out the utensils I could find.

"Wait...how come I don't get a fork?" Nick frowned, looking at everyone eating even though it didn't look all too appetizing. I shrugged, since I gave everyone else a fork or spoon besides me, Nick and Coach. I figured Coach ate enough to know how to eat without a utensil, and I didn't want to be impolite for using one myself. I didn't care if it bugged Nick that he didn't have one either. Nick exhaled through his nose before turning to look out the window. Since Leo was driving the train, Maddy brought his meal up to him, which made sense why there wasn't another utensil if there were twelve people to ten forks or spoons. "Whatever, doesn't look edible anyways."

"How Canadian..._Kraft Dinner_..." Ellis grumbled as he shovelled the food down anyways, since everyone seemed hungry enough to complain while eating it.

"Well, _y'all_ better enjoy it," I started, partially annoyed that Ellis was trying to bring up the whole country thing again, "That's the last of our food until we get something else."

Everyone stopped eating; I don't blame them if it was because it was bad food, and stared at me blankly.

"Seriously?" Bandit frowned lightly, looking down at the orange-brown mix of weird tasting food. Coach hung his head down slightly, since he must've been hungrier than the rest of us. Turns out I was right, Coach basically guzzled the food down, no utensil needed.

.

Everyone else was finishing their meal up, and sat in silence. I turned to Maddy, who was still quietly picking at her share of the meal, eating one noodle or bean at a time. I could tell something was wrong, but I couldn't place what. Her eyes were tinged red as she stared at her blood-crusted teddy bear, sitting beside her bowl.

"Hey, Maddy?" I gently prodded at her arm to get her attention. Slowly, her big hazel eyes met with mine for a second before looking back at her teddy. "Are you okay?"

Whatever food Maddy had been chewing on fell out of her mouth as her tears started to fall, and she started to cry like she was when we found her, only it was way louder since it wasn't muffled. Slightly grossed out, since her chewed food was all over her lap and there was a small amount of snot falling out of her nose as she cried, I didn't know what the heck to do.

"Maddy?" I asked once again as she shoved her messy little face into my arm, wailing for a few minutes. I figured it best to just let her cry everything out. She was only six after all, and lost her whole family. I just gently stroked her hair as her wailing turned in to small sobs, and then to broken breathing. "Maddy, kiddo, are you okay?"

Maddy shook her head as she wiped the mess from her face, looking a little embarrassed, but still really sad. She was just getting her composure back when tears started falling from her eyes again, but not as bad as the first time. Maddy took a deep, shaky breath as she tried to speak. "I- I..."

"What is it, sweetie?" I gently responded. Now, kids having nightmares was difficult for me to come up with a reaction, but kids that were sad were a little easier to handle having worked in summer camps with kids her age and them missing their mommies or daddies. Only, this child actually had a reason to miss her family, since she'd never see them again. Maddy took another shaky breath, and tried to calm down enough to talk.

"I m-miss Mommy, an-and Daddy...I miss m-my baby sister. I- I want Abby back!" She began to wail again, this time throwing her arms around me and burying her head in my side, since my arms instinctively went up to avoid the hug. It was instinct, not that I didn't want to comfort the girl. I looked around, seeing everyone else was sleeping or trying to. Nick looked over though, probably woken up from Maddy's crying. Maddy noticed, released me from her teddy-bear hug and ran over to Nick and plopping herself in his lap and continuing to cry with her small head snuggled into the crook of his neck while she did so. I could see how uncomfortable he was, and annoyed that he couldn't do much. Well besides the obvious.

"Hey...hey kid. Stop that." Nick's face looked contorted between trying to look sympathetic to really fucking annoyed. Maddy wouldn't hear it though. Nick sighed, trying to pry her off. "Look. I'm not your dad so stop it."

That didn't seem called for. Maddy's head snapped up, her big hazel eyes filled with hurt as she ran away down the car of the train, throwing the door open and disappearing towards the back. I remembered the tank was back there, so I shot Nick one hard glare before rushing to catch up to the disheartened child. "What?"

"Way to go, asshole." I shot, being annoyed that he could be so heartless all the time. Sure, I was a little annoyed that Maddy was persistent on telling me, and even calling me once or twice, that I looked or was her mom. Then I had to remember she was only six, so I let it pass without being outright annoyed like what Nick tended to do. Just little kids I had that kind of patience for.

Maddy was sitting on Fluffy's lap, absently picking at the fibres on her sweater again. Fluffy was staring off, watching the speeding, empty world go by with probably equally empty thoughts. I walked over to sit down in the small space left from Fluffy's legs to face Maddy. We just sat there and stared at each other for a long while. The small brunette was snuggled in Fluffy's huge arms, quickly reminding me of King Kong with that stupid blonde chick in that stupid movie. I shook the thought out of my head and regained eye contact with the small girl. I don't remember falling asleep, but when the train jolted, my eyes shot open.

* * *

It was dark out as I looked around I noticed my stomach felt like it was getting tugged backwards, like the train was moving faster. Maddy was awake, but she looked real scared.

"Rikki!" Maddy held out her arms, "Why're we going faster?"

"I- I don't know..." I held out my arms for her to hop in them, patting the big guy on his huge shoulder. "Thanks big guy, we'll be back okay."

He grunted, like he knew what I meant. Maddy held her arms tightly around my neck as I felt her small heartbeat pounding away. The more I walked, the harder it felt to walk, like trying to stand straight on a really fast merry-go-round. I looked to see that no one was left in the car they'd all been in, so I continued on to the front of the train hearing a buzzing noise that got louder the closer we got to the front. Everyone was squished into the front car, where Leo was frantically pushing some buttons and yelling over a really loud buzzing noise and the frantic yells of the group.

"**I don't know what happened!**" We could barely hear him as he found the button that turned off the noise. "I thought...ah fuck I don't know what I thought, but the train sped up after I hit something...I didn't mean to, but I started to fall asleep when I hit it."

"You **idiot**!" Nick spat at Leo, "You're driving a train, and you fall asleep?"

"Hey, at least I didn't let a witch in while doing so!" Nick's mouth twitched. It was probably him that let the witch in that one night at Pineridge. Maybe Jude told him about that. "Yeah."

"Yeah, great, because crashing a train is _**so**_ much _safer_." Nick retorted as his eyes scanned the area, "Isn't there like, some emergency brakes or something? I mean, come on!"

"Is this it?" Ellis pulled at a lever, which strained as he pulled, like it wasn't used in a really long time. There was a loud crank followed by a really ear piercing screech of metal.

"Shit! That better be it!" Leo screamed, pointing ahead: there was a big pile up of metal smack dab in the middle of the approaching tracks along with another train, only it was crashed. After a few frantic seconds of searching one last time for the brakes, we gave up. Everyone was yelling something different, and we could sort of feel a slight slowing, since the metal screeching was still ongoing, threatening to deafen everyone. The heap was getting bigger, or maybe just closer.

"OI! Get to the **back**! Go, go, GO!" Kay yelled turning and pushing Ellis and everyone behind him, coaxing us to move.

"Move men, MOVE!" Bandit proclaimed while running along with the group. She sounded almost excited more than scared, and I began to wonder if it was becoming like a game for her...probably.

I picked Maddy up and turned to rush through the door, followed closely by everyone else. I glanced out the window, and I swore I saw something in the sky, probably a helicopter or something. It didn't seem to matter much if we were going to die in a train crash, so I sped up as fast as I could to the back. Everyone was at my heels, yelling indistinguishably, making everything feel all the more surreal. We were in the last car just before we reached Fluffy, but suddenly everything felt slow for a brief minute, maybe it was way shorter, and the screeching noise heightened even more along with crunching a million times louder than a car crash. Everything went from brief slow motion to abrupt speed once more, throwing everyone around in a split second with the loud noises drowning out the frantic yelling. All I could do was hold Maddy close, embrace myself and hope that there was such thing as God.

* * *

I don't know how long it was or how hurt I was. All I could do was just look down and hope Maddy was still there. Her head was bleeding, and her leg had a gash. I sat up slowly, noticing the smoke that was filling up the crowded stock area. There was metal and crates lying about, probably what caused a majority of injuries to the unconscious beings around me.

"Fucking Christ..." I groaned, feeling shooting pains just about everywhere. Everything felt hazy as I pulled myself together; I realized Maddy was bleeding. My throat felt slightly raspy but I called out. "Hey! People, all of you okay?"

"Nn..." There were various replies, and a few people sat up. My attention snapped back to Maddy, who was unmoving but breathing. I struggled up, feeling pains shoot up from my knees and shoulders. I hope I took most of the damage, rather Maddy.

"Maddy...Maddy?" I gently shook her, and she twitched, but didn't respond. I picked her up, and dragged myself to the nearest person who was leaving the car. Coach slowly picked himself up, since everyone else was leaving. He gave a softened glance at Maddy's unconscious being, as I handed her to him. "Get her out of here; I'll make sure no one's left."

Coach nodded solemnly and knelt down to help Bernadette up, taking her along outside. Rochelle and Luke were hobbling along and out the door too, along with Jude, Leo, Bandit and Ellis, dragging Kay. I knelt down, beneath the accumulating smoke and looked around the car until I saw a pair of legs in white pants, unmoving beneath a pile of boxes, scrap metal and such. I hurried myself and knelt down to pull Nick out from the mess he was under by his ankles. He was bleeding from the head like everyone else seemed to be. I crawled beside him, keeping under the smoke even though the place was starting to lose breathable oxygen. I had to get him out of there, but when I tried to drag him or pull him up, he remained there.

"Ah shit, Nick? Hey, Nicky, can you hear me?" I looked around and found his fallen Desert Eagle, cocking and shooting one shot at the crate above his head. I was trying to wake him up or whatever, but it didn't work. Biting my lip, I leaned my head down on his chest to try pick up a heartbeat. But the noise of a burning up, crashed train kind of drowned out that idea, so I put two fingers on the side of his throat and felt a weak pulse pumping slowly underneath them. I started to shake him by his shoulders, since the man was too heavy to drag out what with his dead weight and all. "**Nick**! Get up you asshole! Come on, man..."

I started to very slowly drag him by his underarms, doing my best not to fall backwards and wondering why I always ended up alone when Nick needed help. While making my slow progress to safety, I wondered how screwed up I was, since dragging people heavier than Nick never seemed to be that much of a challenge. Nevertheless, I hissed out my thoughts to the unconscious being. "_C'mon you heavy son-of-a-bitch, now would be a good time to wake up!_"

.

Slowly, I got out on to the platform and bumped into someone. Looking back and up, I saw Fluffy standing there, blankly looking down and scooping up Nick before hopping down from the train and I followed to the safe enough distance. Fluffy slowly put Nick down, careful not to just drop him on the ground as everyone else was watching both curiously and disheartened. I limped over, not realizing how fucked up my knee felt but ignored it. I've had worse happen to my legs in soccer, so I learned to walk off a majority of leg injuries. I knelt down once again by Nick, wondering if he was still breathing. Something I did not notice, and God knows how I missed it, was Maddy's machete half way in Nick's right side. Letting out a stream of curses in no particular order, I looked around for my med-kit then up to the burning train, remembering I had left it on my seat. Kay handed me a little red kit and I tore it open, grabbing out ointments and gauzes all at once.

I unbuttoned Nick's shirt and then took out the machete and threw it aside, catching the blood with a pile of soaked gauzes and quickly wrapping bandages around him best I could. If he woke up, he could clean up my crappy job in a safe house or something. I checked for his pulse again, and while doing so, Maddy knelt down beside me and put a hand on my arm. Her head was bandaged, but she looked fine otherwise.

"Is Mr Nick okay?" Maddy sniffed, looking sorrowfully at Nick as tears welled up in her eyes once again. I shrugged slowly, not thinking of the best scenario while shaking Nick again.

"Nick, ah shit." I couldn't feel much of a pulse, and his breathing was even slower. The only thing I could think of was attempting CPR, since that first aid course I took back in high school would've suggested it. Everyone gathered around, but there were gunshots to be heard after a scream of a horde alerted everyone else, not too far off. I didn't stop though, I wasn't going to let Nick die like that; knowing him, he probably had his own idea of how he'd go and it probably didn't include a train crash.

"Rikki, this isn't lookin' good." Ellis warned, hearing a screech of a hunter a little too late as he got pounced. Swearing lightly, I took out Nick's magnum and blew a hole through the hunters face before it could do any damage to the southerner. He stood up and nodded before turning to keep shooting the zombies while staying in the circle the group formed around me, Maddy and Nick.

"I know, I know...just a minute." I checked Nick's pulse again, which was stronger and I could see him breathing again. I sighed in relief as Nick's eyes flickered open and he started to cough.

"Rikki, what the hell...?" He looked around dazedly before straightening up right away at the scene around him, but cringed when he moved up so fast. He looked down at himself to see his shirt open and bandages that had blood still trying to seep through them. "The fuck? Where's my gun..."

Nick stood up to join the fight, but cringed at the movement again. He picked up his Eagle and started to fire off rounds in a matter of seconds, disregarding his near fatal injuries. I stood up, and looked in my holsters, half surprised I had both my pistols. I looked around; Maddy was busy slicing at infected legs, Jude and Bandit were swinging their empty rifles at the faces of the zombies, Rochelle, Luke, Ellis, Kay, Leo, Jason and Coach were fending off the hordes after hordes with their rifles, machine guns and katanas alike. Bernie, Nick and I just had pistols, but our teamwork started to thin out the crowds of decaying corpses. I heard the roar of a tank, and another roar that equalled it. I looked up again to see a tank running towards the hordes of zombies, while Fluffy sped towards the other big threat landing a hard punch on the enemy tank's face.

No matter what we did, the zombies kept replenishing themselves; after a zombie dropped dead, another one took its place. That's when I heard the low rumbling of a helicopter. I saw everyone else look around too, and saw a helicopter circling around way up high. The crowds of infected was thin enough by then to wave up at the helicopter and hope it saw us. We started to make a run through the zombies towards a clearer spot of the street, killing as much as we could, while Fluffy took the front doing his best to clear the way too. While running, I slipped on something and fell on my knee, which hurt enough already, but found that I had slipped on a katana and saying a silent thanks, picked it up while dragging Maddy along. We both were hacking and slicing away, trying to keep up with the others, wherever they were.

I heard yelling and howling alike, everyone trying to keep up with one another while trying to rush to the helicopter that was hovering above the road, waiting for us.

"_Get to the chopper!_" A man's voice could be heard in the megaphone on the helicopter. You know what really irked me, the fact that they were the _military_ but they couldn't be bothered to use their guns to help clear the heavily congested way _to_ the chopper, just tell us to get there. I pulled Maddy onto my back, while looking around to see where the others ended up. Way up in front, I could see Bandit being helped into the helicopter by a soldier with Kay and Jude right behind her. Everyone else, I wasn't exactly worried per se, but confused, since I couldn't see them. Besides, it's kind of hard to multitask like that, y'know, when you're trying to keep a six year old kid alive with a bummed knee in the middle of a mosh-pit of zombies. No matter how many zombies dropped in front of me, there were new ones to kill. See, now in a game, that'd be fun, but it wasn't. "_Everyone get to the chopper!_"

"Rikki!" Maddy squealed, her grip pulling me backwards as her machete dug into my shoulder slightly. "Something's got me!"

"Hold on!" I yelled, trying to turn around without losing the girl in the process. Couldn't do it, but lucky for her, Nick sliced through the smokers constricting tongue as he followed slowly behind us. "Heh, good thing you're old, huh?"

"Shut up." Nick grumbled, trying to limp ahead. Fluffy could be heard over everything again, along with another tank's roar. He was indeed quite handy to have around, since he liked to beat the other tanks to death, saving the group a lot of time and energy.

"C'mon!" I heard Rochelle's voice carry over some zombies, couldn't see her though. "Hurry!"

Before long, after the enemy tank fell, the chopper started to lift up into the air.

"No, no, NO! HEY!" I was sprinting to try catch up, but by then that was just a hopeful thought, since the helicopter was already above a building. But it hovered for a moment. The zombies were starting to finally thin up a little, but the helicopter was starting to rise up again. Looked like the pilot was having some troubles, probably with the people, since there were still some people left on the ground and the other survivors were probably trying to tell the pilot that. I could just imagine the obscenities Bandit was probably screaming at the pilot, to wait for her sister. "HEY!"

I could hear a few other voices yelling at the helicopter that was rising up yet again, and saw a small black thing fall from the helicopter. I rushed to go catch it, in case it was breakable. It was a walkie-talkie and I was lucky enough to have caught it. "Hello?"

"I _told_ you...("Civilian, I'd stop that"-"Oh shut up.")...Rikki?" I heard Bandit's fuzzy voice over the radio, "Rikki, this dumbshit pilot says there's another helicopter a mile down the road, just go straight, you can't miss it!"

"Why can't he just land again?" I asked, confused, there wasn't any infected around anymore. Then I realized that I couldn't see the helicopter anymore. "Oh, never mind..."

"Dude, you got like ten minutes. Go! Just keep the radio, we'll be in touch! Over and out!" The radio bleeped off, and I could tell that we'd be on our own if we didn't get a move on. I looked around to see who I was left with. Rochelle, Luke, Ellis, Nick and Maddy...that was all. Oh, besides Fluffy the tank.

"Well, you heard Andi, let's get our asses moving people." I ordered my remaining team, who nodded and started to move forwards.

"You said a bad word..." Maddy commented with a small frown.

"Maddy, c'mon, you've heard like...lots of bad words these past few minutes." I sighed, grabbing her hand. "You got your teddy?" She nodded, "Then what're we waiting for?"

"God dammit, I _hate_ CEDA." Nick grumbled, limping to keep up with the rest of the group.

"Well...at least Kay's okay..." Ellis was still staring off in the direction the helicopter disappeared to. "She'll be okay, right?"

"Yeah. They'll crash in an hour or two and we'll find them within the week. I got ten bucks on it." Nick grunted, holding his knee. "God dammit, why'd Coach have to be with them?"

"Shut up Nick! And don't be such a baby and c'mon, old guy." I grumbled, picking up a light jogging pace for everyone else to follow. Running down the large and empty street, I started to wonder where we were, but the whirring of helicopter blades made me remember what we were doing. How long had it been? It'd couldn't have been ten minutes already. "You guys?"

"Just keep goin' man!" Ellis' voice sounded quite happy, despite the reality of being left behind for the second time in twenty minutes. Fluffy was jogging behind, the thumping of his steps making me feel queasy, since it took all I had to not just shoot the thing out of instinct.

"God dammit, it's leaving us!" Nick yelled, instinctively shooting at the helicopter to try getting its attention. Whether we could've caught up to it or not, it was a sort of blessing that we didn't. "Y'know, I'm getting used of this whole left for dead bullshit. I mean...look at what we're missing. I sure as hell don't regret it either..."

Nick pointed upwards at the leaving helicopter, there was a faint screaming as a smoker grabbed the pilot out of the passing helicopter from a nearby building; making the helicopter spin out of control and crash a few streets up. Needless to say, it blew up, making the ground underneath our feet shake for a moment.

"Ho-lee SHIT, dude!" Ellis stopped, put a hand to his hat and gave a whistle to add effect to what he had to say. "I'd say it's a good thing we gone n' missed it, huh?"

* * *

**A/N: Bwahaha. I just **_**had**_** to have one of the survivors say 'left for dead'. Hooray for poorly written cliff hangers! :D **

**R&R! I'll have chapter 15 up as soon as I possibly can. Bye now! :D**


	15. Points of View

**A/N: I'm a try something I've never done before. Different POV's that tie in together! :D I don't know if I'll like it, but it'll offer different insights as to what happens and how everyone handles it, at least. Plus! I'm trying to get the survivors to the place where my story will really kick it up, where all the juicy bits are and my whole point in general. Hooey, I got my work cut out for me, so don't expect the story to be done before school is out. Sorry. :D

* * *

**

**Chapter Fifteen: Points of View**

**Bandit's POV**

We were all sitting in quiet for awhile after I turned off the radio. Sure, I sounded sure of myself on the radio, hell, I felt important to be using a military walkie-talkie. But really, I just didn't want Rikki to worry too much; she had a lot of shit on her mind already. With the zombies, Nick and now Maddy, she didn't need to worry about me too on top of all that. But...she would, and I knew that.

"They'll make it there." Jason put a hand on my shoulder, staring at me. I just smiled a little and nodded, taking a peek out the side of the helicopter to see the other one rising up. I let out a small sigh, relieved. Well, at least until it spun out of control and blew up into a million pieces on the ground below.

"What the fuck?" I freaked out and caused everyone else to jump too. "Their chopper crashed...I...holy fuck..."

"Holy shit..." Jude looked mortified, "I hope they weren't on there."

"Yeah, let's hope that they missed their chance for survival. Real good." Jason sighed, looking just as stunned.

"Their 'chance' for survival kinda crashed, Jay." Coach grunted at the kid. I turned to look at the stupid pilot, it was his fault. All he had to do was go back down for a few seconds, and we'd be on our merry-fucking-way.

"Hey, dumbshit." I addressed the pilot. He glared back like he was going to shoot me or something. "How far do these radios go?"

"Twenty miles, but they both have to be on." He grunted in monotone. I made a face at him, I really wasn't going to let him fly in peace for ignoring me.

"I know that. I'm not stupid, unlike you." I frowned, but smiled a little as he lifted his hand and the middle finger on it. I clicked the button on the radio, hearing fuzz and assumed that meant the other one could be on. "I'm telling your superior...Hey...Hey!"

There was a few seconds of silence, as the rest of the group held their breaths, waiting for a response. Then there was a crackle before a fuzzy voice could be heard. "Hello? Andi? Is Kay there?"

"Ellis? Yeah, we're fine. I thought you guys were goners. Put Rikki on." I sighed in relief, and had to hold back the cheer I wanted to do, in fear of looking dumb in front of the pilot I was calling dumb.

"Can I hear Kay first?" Ellis' voice was starting to crackle between every other word. Annoyed, I threw the radio at Kay, who just stuck her tongue out at me.

"Make it quick, derp." I sighed. Kay nodded.

"HAY, _I'm okay, so now Andi wants to talk to her sister so put 'er back on okay, I'll see you soon, love ya!_" Kay basically spat that out in one short breath and chucked the radio back at me.

"Okay well, we're jus headed outta this town and then we'll meet up with ya at-" Ellis' voice was cut short as the connection fuzzed out.

"ARGH." I was annoyed, simple as that. "Well...if Ellis is alive and well, I'll assume my sister is too..."

"I'm sorry he talks so much..." Kay made a face of sincerity; it would've rivalled Ellis'. I just sighed and nodded at my friend.

* * *

**Rikki's POV**

"What the hell, Ellis?" I groaned, annoyed that he was still talking into that goddamned radio. He stole it away the moment he heard the fuzz of Bandit talking. Clearly, he didn't hear it cut out since he was still prattling on about his love to Kay. I don't think they heard where we were supposed to meet up with them, if we could. He looked up, with a small innocence that I couldn't stay that mad at, but still, I could be annoyed. "Y'know, I'm this close to saying 'I hate you'."

"Awweh, don't be like that. Here, you kin talk to yer sister." Ellis earnestly handed over the radio, still completely clueless. I just shook my head at his stupidity.

"Aelus, ther too far away, man. It cut out before you could tell 'em where weer goin' ya dumb hick." I decided to mock his accent while poking at his chest as he backed up, I wanted to get my annoyance with him at the moment out in the open. Ellis made a face that said he didn't mean to, so I sighed and tried to quell the oncoming headache by pinching the bridge of my nose again. "It's okay...it's okay, Elle. Just...next time, _I'm doing the talking_."

"Well, there goes plan A." Nick was sitting on the sidewalk, still holding his knee. "Anyone got a plan B?"

"Nope." I sighed, letting go of Maddy's hand for a few minutes to go straighten out Nick's knee. Nick looked up at me with an eyebrow raise as I put my hands on his leg, and imitated what Coach had done to Nick's knee weeks earlier, only with a great overtone of uncaring. He screamed pretty much like he did when Coach did it. "Oh, man up."

"Well, it hurt. Damn, woman..." Nick grumbled, moving his knee with a look of annoyance. "Huh...well how about that, it feels better."

"Well, then, let's go." I pulled the man up to his feet and turned to grab Maddy's hand again. Everyone walked in silence; Luke and Rochelle were holding hands, a first for me to see really, Ellis was quietly kicking a rock while we walked and Nick was looking lost in thought as he quietly limped behind us.

* * *

**Jude's POV**

I just kind of looked at my pal, who was sitting in the corner with her knees pulled up, clearly in deep thought about her sister. Or maybe she was sleeping. We were flying for a good few hours, and had no idea of where we were going to end up, or what'd happen to us. Best way to get rid of that was to simply ask, I guess.

"Hey, pilot dude." He looked back at me for a second, "Where are we going?"

"We're headed to Valancy Summit." He spoke in a flat tone of voice.

"Never heard of the place." I commented, but then realized that I hadn't heard of a lot of places. Like...Amsterdam, Saskatchewan. Go ahead, look it up, it exists. The soldier pilot dude just kind of scoffed at me, like I was dumb or something.

"Course you haven't, it's a new town. Ricardo Valancy set it up; it's a CEDA safe zone where I'm stationed." CEDA, great, from what I heard from the others, they weren't too dependable.

"Who's that?" I asked. He spoke like I should know the name, which I obviously didn't.

"Just a rich and powerful man. That's all you're permitted to know. I've told you too much already." Sighed the pilot. "Now sit down and be quiet."

"Well, what about our friends? You like, left six people behind." I refused to sit down without an explanation about what would happen to Rikki and the others.

"There're multiple search and rescue teams throughout the country, and they're all taken to the Summit before CEDA decides where to place them. You'll see them if they survive until another squad is sent out. Now I suggest you sit down and shut up before I lose my patience, okay?"

"Holy crap...okay then..." I just shrugged and went to sit down by Leo, who put his arm around me. "Do you...d'you think they'll be okay?"

"Well, let's see, two temperamental pessimists, one southerner that's good with guns and a couple all protecting a little kid...not to mention that tank they've got with them. They'll be fine. It's us I'm worried about." Leo shrugged a little, pulling himself closer to me.

"Why?" I asked; if we were headed to a safe zone, shouldn't that mean exactly that? We'd be safe?

"Well, I wasn't planning on going to the safe zones in different groups...but when they get there, they can contact us I suppose, with internet. It'll be back to normal once we get there..." Leo shrugged a little, pushing his glasses up with a small smile. I nodded and pulled my knees close to be comfortable while we flew.

* * *

**Nick's POV**

Okay, so Rikki wasn't the happiest camper at that moment, but she didn't have to take it out on my knee. Well, yeah, it felt better and I could walk on it so whatever. I just followed for awhile, half amusing myself at the thought of being separated from my own family like that. Well, it got less amusing after I realized I probably wouldn't care if it were that bitch of an older sister of mine. Living with those parents that were never home, and when they were they were too drunk to care who fucked up what; so that gave Lillian all she needed to pin everything on me. And to take all of her rage out on me after I was done taking the blame for anything under the sun. God, I really gotta stop think about that crap. It never got me anywhere. I shook my head, trying to shake out the sudden anger that tried to take over my thoughts. That's the last place I need Lil to show up; whoever said that 'he who angers you, conquers you' must've had a lot of fucking patience and a better childhood and siblings to say that.

What made that happy thought all the better? The sound of another group of zombies rushing towards the group, that's what. Looking around at the somewhat rag-tag group I felt a little better knowing we were decently equipped. Somehow, it didn't seem as intimidating slicing through the zombies this time around; Maddy was getting used of her machete, and Rikki and Luke were pretty good with guns for Canadians. It was almost quiet enough to talk over the zombies and be heard somewhat. An almost casual conversation: 'Oh hey what's going on?' 'Nothing much, just kicking some zombie ass, how about you?' Yeah, that kind of conversation.

"Well, isn't this exciting. I didn't know there was this many buildings in Canada." I commented, not expecting any answers, since I figured the people around me got used of my commentary. Didn't mean they agreed or liked what I said, and I knew that.

"I know right? Too think; we were all living in igloos none too long ago, before we Canadians realized we didn't have to use whale blubber for fuel, or dogsled everywhere, eh?" Rikki's snide remark came back. For a split second, I was tempted to ask 'Really?', but the smart hick took the idiot's fall for me.

"Really? Cause that's what I was actually wonderin' the first time we got here." Ellis' eyebrows shot up as the zombies started to clear away.

"Really Ellis? Really." I shook my head, almost in sympathy for the lack of brain cells in the mechanic's head. Well, okay, he had a few bright ideas. Ellis just shrugged, realizing Rikki's sarcasm, I guess. At that moment, there was a searing pain in my side as a hunter grazed the side I had the crappy bandaging job on, making the gash deeper.

"Ow, fuck! Scrawny lil' bitch I'm gonna kill!" I kicked the hunter in the face, not entirely stopping the beast since it scratched at my legs. I still killed it, regardless. By then, I realized that everyone was already a street ahead of me. I picked up to a jogging pace to catch up as a smoker grabbed out at me. Luck seemed to like me for that moment, since I could turn to shoot at it before I dropped my gun. I turned to close the last few yards between me and the group. "Yeah, thanks for waiting, _eh?_"

"What? We yelled '_Safe house ahead! C'mon, hurry!_'." Rochelle just rolled her eyes as she answered me, but then looked down at my side. "Holy crap, Nick. We gotta patch you up...you're bleeding everywhere."

I looked down and shrugged, "Yeah, thanks for noticing."

* * *

**Leo's POV**

One thing I think the group in the helicopter could agree on was that this simply was not the plan envisioned. It appeared we were going to make it to a safe zone, but in separate groups. And there was no knowing whether or not we'd be separated there too. It was cramped in the helicopter, and it was starting to feel even smaller. I don't know what that means, but it gave me an uneasy feeling as we felt the helicopter lower. I looked outside, as with everyone else, to see a rather large city encased in a gigantic metal wall, covered by barbed wire and surrounded by a rather large moat. It looked like one of the towns I found a month or so earlier on Google Earth, of all things.

"So this is Valancy Summit?" I questioned the soldier, who just nodded shortly. "Uh, unless those things can swim...those things climb walls...so how-?"

"It's a high-voltage wall, so I don't recommend going to test its strength by hand." The soldier gave a minute smirk; I guess they had to be serious at all times or something because he stopped the moment it happened.

"Oh my god...did we actually make it?" Jude must've been sleeping until then. She looked outside as the helicopter gently touched down on the ground. "Well, god damned, how about that? Hey, Andi, get up."

"Huhn?" Andi looked up sleepily, and looked outside. "The fuck?"

"Well I'll be..." Coach straightened up, looking outside with a small smile and poking Bernie up. "We're here, hun."

The helicopter pilot came round and beckoned us out, since all of us seemed too stunned to really move. There weren't any zombies around whatsoever and it looked like a normal, albeit closed in, city. "Welcome to Valancy Summit."

* * *

**Ellis' POV**

Even I knew we were pretty much screwed. That chopper didn' spare a second ta leave us, an' I was starting to feel...I dunno; a lil' disappointed. I guess even being deserted in a zombie apocalypse wasn' quite enough ta shoot me completely down. Well, it's not like I was all by my lonesome or 'nthing; I had friends with me. It was just Kay being taken away that made me feel kinda empty. The only other feelin' I can compare it with was when I was drivin' Jimmy Gibbs Jr's stock car an' had ta leave it back at Whisperin' Oaks.

Leo was the one that knew where we're supposed ta go, but he was wherever we were headed to by now. I mean, from how Rikki put it, we weren't that far from Ontario and I knew that them whirly-birds flew pretty darned fast, 'specially if they were military standard. Oh, that and if Nick wasn't right an' they didn' crash or 'nthing. I really hoped not.

We were all sittin' around in silence in the safe room. Maddy was snoozin' on Rikki's jacket on the only bed in the one room while Rikki patched Nick up. His wound looked pretty bad, I dun think it was enough ta kill him or 'nthing, but I ain't ever seen Nick look so pissed off at a wound. He was gettin' stitches, and complaining a whole lot while Rikki threaded him up.

"Rikki, sewing a bag and sewing skin back together are _not_ the same thing." Nick grunted ev'ry other word as the needle poked through. I ain't ever seen him so docile before we got ta Canada; back in the States, he woulda bitched 'n complained that he could do it himself or somethin'. But with Rikki, he let her patch him up an' stuff; granted he still bitched 'n complained. Still, his words made me chuckle a little, but he shot a pretty dark glare at me.

"Same shit, different smell." Rikki continued to stitch skilfully, while shrugging. She gave Nick a small nudge after he glared, and I laughed a lil' again.

"S'gettin' colder out..." I commented; since it was pretty chilly, well, enough ta make me zip up my coveralls. I made a mental note ta grab a jacket next chance I had. I was pretty damn sure Nick jus stayed mad because the lot of us figured out he liked Rikki and stuff; the both of 'em were just too damned stubborn to admit it. Well Rikki did once, and that was on the boat a few days ago or somethin'...I dunno if she was being sarcastic or not though. Dun matter though, we all knew she meant it.

"Really now?" Nick just rolled his eyes, but squinted as Rikki pulled the last stitch through. I just nodded an' got as comfy as I could in the damp building and took a deep breath before noddin' off ta sleep for a bit.

* * *

**Ro's POV**

A lot had happened in a few short days, and I'm not sure if it was for the better in some cases. Let's see, we stayed the night in a comfortable pool hall that had showers, successfully crashed a helicopter (by that I mean no one died and it wasn't that bad), found a little girl to look after, a tank I'm still not comfortable looking at and got separated from half of the group. Not the greatest week, but we were closer to our only hope to stay alive. It seemed we'd be on foot though, since all the cars around here were stripped and it didn't look like we'd get another train to make things go faster. Maybe there'd be a car dealership with some cars left over. I doubted it somehow.

There was a little tension amongst the group, I don't know if it was just me or not, but even Ellis was quiet for the most part. I think we were all used of each other by then, since it was weird to not hear Bandit and Jude ramble about needing to find some weed, or Kay rambling on about her video games or what things she was prepared for in the event of a zombie apocalypse. Since Leo was with the other half of the group, I didn't know who would figure out where we needed to go. Back in the normal days, it was as easy as google. But the phone I had then had long since died, and I hadn't thought of asking if anyone else had a phone to use for internet reasons.

"Uh...anyone have a phone?" I asked, a little meekly, since it sounded weird to ask then of all times. Everyone but Rikki shook their heads; Rikki was looking through pockets and her backpack before scrunching her face in annoyance.

"I _did_. I think I left it on my seat in that train." She sighed and flopped against the wall. Being an only child, I couldn't imagine the stress that was probably running through Rikki's mind. I went to go sit by her, take a stab at being a good friend.

"Hey, it'll be okay. You don't have to listen to that jerk," I motioned to Nick, remembering his comment about them crashing so we could find the group. Rikki just nodded weakly, a small smile attempting to show through the stress. "Besides, they have Coach to look after them. They'll be okay."

"I know, it's just...Andi's all I have left, like, family-wise." Rikki shrugged, pulling her knees up to her chest while resting her chin on her arms. She was looking over at Maddy's sleeping figure in the dimly lit room. "And then I've got Maddy to worry about. She's fine now, but it's a horrible thought that's always playing in the back of my mind; just thinking if I'm not there for one instance, what could happen. I mean, she's so small..."

Rikki was half shaking by this point, like she was trying not to cry. Hell, I was in her spot not too long ago. I mean, not looking after a kid or anything, just the stress of everything going on. I couldn't blame her for wanting to cry. I must've got really annoying for the week that everything caught up to me. Rikki buried her face, so put an arm around her.

"Rikki, what's the matter?" I asked anyways, in case she still wanted to talk. Rikki looked up with reddened eyes, but no tears were quite falling.

"I'm just lost right now...I feel so lost." Rikki sighed, wiping at her eyes before taking another deep breath. Ellis looked up from his spot on the ground, and looked Rikki, then at me with questioning eyes. Shrugging, he scooted over since he wasn't that far from us to put an elbow on Rikki's other shoulder. "But I guess it could be worse, hey?"

"What could be worse?" Ellis looked at Rikki with a small smile, but still confused why she was trying not to cry. Rikki just shrugged lightly.

"I could be stuck in this damned apocalypse on my own, or dead or whatever. I don't know if dead would matter much, I mean, at least it wouldn't be painful." Rikki spoke lightly, as Ellis' eyes widened a little.

"Hey now, don' go thinkin' like that. Won't get you nowhere. You got great friends right here, and we'll find the others soon enough." Ellis nodded while he smiled widely; I swear his smile is contagious, since both Rikki and I smiled back. "That's better. Y'know, y'all should smile more often."

"Yeah yeah...we're not all 'the cup is half-full' type of people like you are, Elle." Rikki shrugged, still smiling. The redness in her eyes was gone and she was still staring at Maddy's sleeping figure. Ellis just grinned while looking up at Maddy too. I looked around to see Nick staring absently out of the bars of the safe room door. Luke was hunched over, trying to get some shut eye on the musty looking couch. I decided to go try get some sleep too, figuring it could be worse sleeping on the floor instead of the couch. I stood up, after giving Rikki a small hug, and walked over to the couch.

* * *

**Rikki's POV**

I sat there with Ellis for a good twenty minutes or so after Ro went to sleep. He was blabbering away about Keith and other things. I felt exhausted. I looked over at Nick, and realized it was quite dark out still, as the moonlight shone on his sleeping figure. I looked back at Ellis who was still prattling away about one of Keith's amazing feats after a freak hillbilly accident. I just nodded like I knew what he was talking about, and laughed at the appropriate times.

"Hey, Rikki?" I looked up at Ellis again; my mind must've wandered since my sight was set on the floorboards near the bookshelf. Ellis just smiled lightly, but his smile told me he was worried about something.

"Yeah?" I asked, wondering what could be bothering the southerner.

"Whatever Leo was talkin' about before we left Prince Rupert or whatever, what're we gonna do 'bout all that? I mean, from the sounds of it, they're really powerful people! I dun know about y'all, but I'm pree intimidated." Ellis looked kind of odd while fidgeting in his coveralls, since they were done up. "What the hell are we gonna do of all people?"

"I don't really know, but it all depends on what's there when we get there." I shrugged; I didn't know that part of Leo's idea. I just hoped it'd be safe there. Ellis simply nodded, while looking off into the distance, then out at the door again.

"What about the big guy? I'm pretty sure them safe zones won't let a _tank_ in." Ellis gestured at the tank that was staring quietly at the moon. I just shrugged again.

"Well, I've tried telling Maddy we can't keep him. She won't hear it. I mean, it's a little weird that a little girl wants a gigantic deformed man for a pet, right?" It was sort of rhetoric, but I can't say that I wasn't confused why Maddy wanted to keep Fluffy. Ellis just shrugged, inhaling slowly, as if to dispel his uneasiness. "Who's standing watch first?"

"Rock, paper, scissors?" Ellis held out a closed fist, so I didn't pass up the chance, since I wanted to sleep. When I won the first time, Ellis' pout came out. "Best outta three."

"Sorry Elle, I guess you're staying up for a bit." I yawned, exaggeratedly, after winning again before going to poke Nick up. Ellis was still pouting slightly as he walked over to the door with me. "You wanna sit here right?"

"Yeah, looks purdy comfy. Heh. Hey Nick!" Ellis gave a small kick to the sleeping man, who jolted awake in sleepy surprise, "You get on ta bed. Ellis'll look out for a bit."

"Whaddabout the big guy? Can't he do that?" Nick yawned while sticking his thumb in the general direction of Fluffy. "Ah whatever..."

.

I realized I didn't know why Nick had to get up, since there wasn't anywhere else to sleep besides the bed I was going to sleep on with Maddy. At least it was a king sized bed. Ellis was right, it was pretty cold, and being a Canadian, I knew it would only get colder from there. I sat on the end of the bed as Nick flopped on the couch I didn't notice before.

"How're your stitches?" I asked. I was tired, but talking before sleeping used to be a habit of mine, and it was trying to rear its head back into existence. Nick just lifted up part of his shirt to reveal the bandaging that had blood seeping through. "Oh...ew...you should probably change those bandages..."

"Be my guest. Since I know you're going to anyways..." Nick yawned a little, looking at the ceiling then to me with a small smirk. I already had a med-kit out and ready to clean the area. I sighed a little, feeling awkward at being so readable sometimes. Either way, I ended up on the couch prodding and cleaning the mediocre stitching that was letting blood seep through a little anyways. At least he wasn't losing so much blood like before.

"That's because you leave so much blood behind, or reuse a cloth from before. Y'know, for a guy who's concerned about germs, you're not very careful." I shook my head at the gambler, who just raised a brow with a small smile as he kept the shirt raised for me.

"Well, for a girl who claims to only like me, you're pretty concerned about my injuries." Nick smirked lopsidedly as he unbuttoned his shirt so he could rest his arms on the couch. I don't think I hid the blushing bit as much as I would've liked to.

"Only because you're not." I sighed, hating my lack for better words. Nick just shrugged lightly with his smirk still in place as I started to wrap the bandages around his waist. He still smelled faintly of Old Spice, but also of zombie blood and slight body odour. I started to wonder when the next shower would be, since it would be too cold to wash in a river when we found one. I don't know why, but when my arm went around the last time to wrap the bandage around him, I paused. For a brief moment, our eyes met as the proximity between each other narrowed. Once finished, we sat there in silence still staring at one another. I don't know what I wanted to say at that point, but I didn't speak since I didn't feel the need to. Somehow, the silence was comforting. Probably since Nick would've screwed up what he wanted to say verbally.

"Wanna play a game?" Nick spoke first, a small smile playing on his lips. I shrugged, the comforting feeling was gone. I was wondering if losing blood affected how the brain worked, since I never listened to much in my other classes in College. Nick seemed too nice, for whatever reason, and it was a little weird, for lack of better words again. "Whatever, I'll go first; I bet that Ellis talks to that thing out there in the next twenty minutes."

"Most likely...Do I just make a bet on something?" I half smiled, already picturing Ellis talking about Keith to Fluffy since no one else was awake in his mind. Nick nodded to answer me. "I bet Andi and the others are okay, probably at some safe zone already."

"Maybe...yeah." Nick shrugged. "I bet...uh...I bet it'll snow in the next week."

"I don't think so. I say three. It'll just be cold for awhile." I looked up at the ceiling, starting to wonder how this was amusing. "That was my bet."

"Well then...I bet you're annoyed with this game already." Nick looked back at the ceiling too, but then flopped his head to face me. I looked at him and nodded, bored.

"I bet you're just trying to not be socially awkward by playing this game." I smiled at the frown that Nick gave before speaking.

"I bet you're just being a jerk to me because you like me." Nick grinned, and it was my turn to frown lightly.

"Likewise." I shrugged, since it was Nick's turn to tinge a light color of pink. I smiled a little, but then Nick started to slowly close the short distance between us.

"I bet you're glad you grabbed me outta that train." Nick's grin broadened as he moved even closer. I smiled back, feeling a little shy.

"I bet you are too." Nick's breath started to warm my face up a little as I smirked. I was starting to feel a little awkward, since my head didn't want to get over the age difference.

"I bet..." Nick's nose was touching mine at that point, and I felt my face burn up. As much as I wanted to push him away, I didn't. "You'd like to kiss me."

"I bet my mom would kill me if she saw this." I pulled back a little, before staring at the bed. Nick just scrunched his eyebrows together as his green eyes bore into mine when I looked back.

"Why?" Nick tilted his head a little, before scooting over a few inches. Clearly, I ruined whatever moment had been building up. I decided I was going to build it back up a little, since I didn't mean to say my thoughts out like that. So I scooted back towards him before speaking again, placing a hand on his. He looked up at me with a confused look in place, a look that kind of said 'make up your mind already'.

"Well...my mom always told me that," I pulled myself closer while putting my legs over Nick's, while he looked at me with a small smirk, "if a fully grown man went after her daughters, she'd kill them. I don't think she accounted for dying first, though."

"Well, are you not a fully grown woman by now?" Nick placed a hand on my shin and slowly sidling it up, but stopping just above my kneecap. I just smiled while I thought of what to say.

"Are you not sixteen years older than me? I mean, while you were hitting puberty, I took my first breath." I shrugged as I put my forehead against his. Nick's eyes were looking up at mine, a mix of curiosity and embarrassment filled them. "You cradle robber."

"Yeah, flattery _is_ your primary goal here, isn't it?" Nick half chuckled as he was going to lean in to kiss me, but stopped a mere millimetre or so as a voice spoke.

"Mommy?" Maddy's small voice broke into the moment and my attention snapped to her. It was starting to bug me less and less when she'd accidently address me as 'Mommy'. "I mean, Rikki. Rikki, I'm thirsty, and I'm cold. Can you guys sleep with me?"

"Of course, kiddo." I looked back at Nick, who just sighed a little. He looked annoyed, but shrugged as he stood up to leave the room. I stood up to go get the blanket I saw while walking over to her. I wrapped it around myself to warm it up a little before placing it on Maddy. Nick came back with a few bottles of water. I was a little surprised that there was any there. Maddy guzzled her water before flopping back down. I lay down beside her, and noticed that Maddy had completely wrapped herself in the blanket. I couldn't blame her though, it was pretty cold.

I felt Nick's weight on the mattress as he lay down beside me. So I rolled over to face him until I was ready to sleep. Nick spoke first. "Is it gonna be like this until we get to Ontario?"

"Probably." I replied, while Nick opened his jacket up a little. I realized I was shivering, since Maddy was using my jacket as a pillow. I scooted over to get some warmth back in me. I looked up at him, with his nose lightly touching mine. "Aww, see now, Nick why can't you always be this nice?"

"Because nobody gives me a reason to be nice, beside the point that I don't feel well right now." Nick shrugged as he readjusted himself.

"Clearly. You're being almost cuddly, and in all honesty, it's a little odd." I grinned up at him, despite myself. I liked the thought of Nick having a kinder side to him, but somehow, I think it was just all the pain pills he had downed before I stitched his wound up.

"Rikki?" Maddy's voice was small and soft again, "Can I sleep between you and Mr Nick?"

I felt Nick sigh as I lifted Maddy over me, "As long as you share your blanket."

"Yay..." Maddy yawned sleepily as she spread the blanket over the three of us and snuggled into Nick more than she did with me. Nick looked taken aback, like he was going to run away from the little girl. Maddy looked up and smiled as she fell asleep.

"Rikki...does she have to sleep like that?" Nick sighed as his arm stretched over her to rest on my shoulder. I tilted my head to the side.

"Well...do you want her to cry again?" I replied. Maddy was already getting clingy to the guy, as much as it bugged me; somehow, it didn't seem that wrong that she got attached to me being a girl and all, but with Nick, he was a grown man with no relation to her, it seemed...wrong if anything. Maddy was still trying to fall asleep.

"Yeah. You wanna make me cry again?" Maddy sleepily interjected, before yawning and snoring lightly. I just smiled as Nick rolled his eyes.

"No, cause that'd be annoying." Nick spoke shortly, with a long sigh before closing his eyes. I lightly pecked his nose as his eyes opened in surprise.

"You think everything's annoying." I smiled before letting sleep take over. Nick just smirked, despite himself as he watched our sleeping figures before falling asleep himself.

"I do not..." He yawned before immersing himself in slumber. Ellis was standing by the doorway; probably going to ask a question or something. I think he was a little embarrassed that he heard and saw Nick being nice, since he peeked into the room after he didn't hear talking anymore. He smiled at the little group sleeping on the bed.

* * *

**A/N: Yay, kind of nice Nick! I kind of liked how this chapter turned out, but I don't know when the next time I decide to do different points of view will be. Anyways, reviews would be nice. A **_**lot**_** nicer than Nick was in this chapter. :D**


	16. Meanwhile

**A/N: To Gabbi3; I would **_**love**_** to have a cuddly, squishy Nick as well; but his 'I'm-mean-as-shit demeanour' is probably what allures the majority of us to the lovable asshole in the first place. Lol. Enjoy my silly filler chapter while I figure out how to word everything to come. :)

* * *

**

**Chapter Sixteen: Meanwhile**

"Hey, Rochelle." I whispered to the other woman, since I didn't want Maddy to hear me. She looked back with a questioning expression. "It's Maddy's birthday tomorrow."

"Are you sure?" She smiled a little, looking at the small girl holding Nick's reluctant hand while jabbering away about something. The past few days had shown little zombies since we left Winnipeg. Yeah, we found out where we were before we left. Not without difficulty, obviously. There were many, many zombies to be killed before we left, and it took five days to leave since none of us knew which way to go. Nevertheless, we found ourselves on the highway and on our way, hopefully, to Ontario.

"I'm pretty sure; she said two weeks ago that she'd be seven, so I've been marking down days to make sure." I nodded, with a small smile. Rochelle grinned a little.

"Should we get a little party set up for her?" Rochelle asked, smiling a little more. "Cause I remembered that too, I just wasn't sure of the day...But I grabbed these when we went through that strip mall for supplies to prepare."

She took out some party hats, dishes and decorations out of her backpack. I smiled, "Good thinking. I grabbed this cake mix stuff with icing. I hope she likes chocolate."

"Don't all kids?" Rochelle smiled, our voices still kept low as we were careful to not be heard by the soon-to-be birthday girl. I shook my head and Ro lifted a brow sceptically.

"No, this one time, a kid in my class was turning eight; he cried and _cried _to not have chocolate _anything_ for his birthday, but the caterer heard chocolate _everything_...did not end so well." I smiled a little at the memory. It was kind of enlightening if anything, and Ro seemed to think so too. "Y'know, this birthday thing is kind of making me happy."

"Me too. Should we tell the others? I mean, except for Maddy." She questioned, and I nodded while going to go poke Nick as she went to tell the other two men. Somehow, I don't know, the idea of five adults celebrating a kids birthday was a little odd.

"Hey, Nick." I leaned closer to his ear as he listened to my whisper, "It's Maddy's birthday tomorrow."

He nodded, but the body language behind it told me he didn't care. A little unimpressed, I lifted one little party hat that had a festive looking '7' on it and he nodded, looking a little annoyed, but smiled a little anyways.

"Whatever, I'll tell you after." I forgot he was holding Maddy's hand still, so I didn't want to get into any details.

Fluffy was slowly trotting behind us, stopping occasionally to sniff around or hit the ground. I was starting to get used of the big fellow, since he never once got mad at us, even if we accidentally shot at him when big hordes managed to get by him, or if we couldn't tell which tank was which. Maddy let go of Nick's hand, her teddy and machete in tow to go hop onto Fluffy's shoulders. He liked the little girl, and it showed. I don't know how, but it was a little comforting to know he wouldn't kill her. I was still uncomfortable with the whole tank idea though.

"Tell me what?" Nick questioned, putting his hands in his pockets and looking down at me.

"We're gonna hold a little surprise party for her. I got the cake stuff, and Ro has the little decorations and things. We just have to find a place that could hold us out for an extra day." I smiled, but Nick shook his head.

"No can do, sweetie. I don't know about you, but I wanna get to Ontario before winter hits. Besides, we didn't celebrate your birthday." Nick shrugged, looking straight ahead. I was a little irritated by then. "Plus, who has the time to celebrate anything anymore, huh?"

"Well, we did pretty much all the time when we were in Prince Rupert, and I forgot about my birthday. I'm not forgetting a little kid's birthday. Besides; we're human, Nick, that's what we do. I mean, once in awhile it'd be nice to have a little of the old world back in our lives." I sighed, almost pleadingly as Nick continued to stare ahead. I don't think he wanted to look at me, in fear of giving in, so I hopped in front of him. "Please?"

He looked at me while walking around me, so I jumped in his way again. Rochelle and the other two men seemed to know that Nick was trying to say no. I grabbed his arm to stop him from moving along. Maddy was giggling away as Fluffy hopped around distractingly, well distracting enough to divert her attention from our conversation. Nick looked at her, then to the others, then to me again and sighed, still trying to shake his head.

"Oh, come on Nicky..." I looked up; attempting the face I used to use to get my way with Jeremy. I didn't expect it to work or anything, but it was worth a shot. Nick's facial expression softened yet again, before he frowned a little like he was contemplating it. "Please?"

"One day. That's all." Nick looked like he wanted to take his words back, but I wasn't going to let him. I gave him a quick hug, but then realized the others were staring intently at us, well, except for Maddy who was showing Fluffy how to wave. Even though he didn't hug back, I was a little embarrassed as I walked back to Ro with a small smile and a nod as we continued walking.

"Yay!" Ro cheered quietly and gave a quick thumbs-up. "What...did you offer a blowjob why he let?"

"Yeah-no." I spoke flatly as I rolled my eyes at a giggling Rochelle. "I said 'please'."

"And that worked? Man, he must really like you." Rochelle looked impressed, like it was amazing that Nick listened to a request with little to no trouble. I nudged her a little.

"What about you and Luke?" I smiled slyly as she turned a little red. "Hey?"

"Well, he's certainly a lot nicer than Nick is. Then again, I guess I can't really judge that factor if a simple question's enough to change his mind with you." Ro snickered, "Nick being nice. The world really is going to hell, ain't it?"

"I guess so..." I sighed, smiling lightly as we continued to walk along the deserted highway. I could see a barn in the distance, and I was wondering if it would serve as a good place to stay for a day. "Hey...there's a barn over there, you think that'll do?"

"Maybe...it might be sturdy enough, and there doesn't seem like there's much zombies around out here. They're all in town. Have you seen anything lately?" I shook my head to answer her question, and she nodded to approve her thought.

"Well, I heard a witch when we were around those deserted cars." I commented blandly as we headed towards the barn. Rochelle just nodded, "But nothing after that."

.

When we got to the barn, I was glad to see that it was made of red metal, with secure looking doors. Whoever had owned this barn before the infection clearly didn't want any intruders or escaped livestock. It had a standard safe room door as we approached the big doors. When we entered the barn from the darkness of the newly arrived night, we were happy to know that it was cold, but cozy with the hay lying around and some chickens clucking about. There food had been spilled in a corner, so that's probably how they survived.

"Neat." I smiled as Luke locked the door behind us. The chickens made the place all the more perfect, since I didn't have to wonder if there were any good eggs lying around. All I needed was clean water and some oil, and an oven. I hoped there was a working oven in the house. "Ro, help me make some beds up?"

"Sure. We can use those sleeping bags over the hay." Rochelle walked over to the sleeping bags from previous people staying in the barns refuge. When we'd made a cluster of beds, Ro beckoned to Maddy. "Maddy, sweetie, here's a comfy bed for you."

"I'm not tired..." Maddy sleepily protested. It was a habit of hers that I was growing used of. "well...it _does_ look comfy...but I'm not falling asleep."

"Whatever you say, boss." I smiled at her little march towards the sleeping bag sitting on the hay, knowing she'd fall asleep as soon as she hit the hay. I guess that's where that phrase came from...

Maddy was sleeping like a log, no idea where that phrase came from, so me and Rochelle were setting things up for the next day in the stable for a horse. We weren't decorating or anything, but we wanted to have everything laid out and ready to start when we woke up. Nick and Ellis were bickering away about staying the whole next day and night or going after cake. Luke was quietly helping Rochelle organize the decorations. He had been awfully quiet the whole time, talking to Rochelle in hushed voices and never addressing me directly. But that was probably because it was awkward for him when I rejected his approach on me.

.

"Nick, what 'bout Christmas then, are we not gonna celebrate that too? 'Cause in all honesty, I think everyone here's 'gainst ya on that one." Ellis frowned at the older man. Nick just shrugged as he answered.

"I'm not saying that we can't celebrate anything; I just said that we don't have the time to stop for too long." Nick rolled his eyes at Ellis' start to pick a fight with the conman. They were starting to do that, off and on, pick fights for the sake of picking a fight. It hadn't gotten any further than pushing around until Luke or someone broke up the fight.

"Well ya said we'd stay a day to Rikki, what changed that huh?" Ellis poked Nick's chest with a tone of slight annoyance; clearly Ellis liked celebrations and was willing to fight for them. Nick smacked Ellis' hand away from him, irritated with the younger man and looking like he was holding back some violence. I think the zombies were good in these cases; they kept us from killing each other since we could vent on them. Before anything started, I decided to interrupt the two.

"Hey you guys?" The two looked with a snap of the eyes at each other before calming their expressions to look at me. "Do you mind helping me out for a minute?"

"Sure, Rikki...with what?" Ellis smiled a little as he walked towards me, with one last dark glance at Nick before standing nearby. Nick scoffed and with a jerk of his head, he was off in another direction of the barn, probably making sure the place was secure enough, as in no holes or anything for anything to get in through.

"I wanna go look for food and stuff for tomorrow, maybe there's stuff up at the house or something. Wanna check it out with me?" I smiled lightly since the tension was still hanging in the air.

"Sounds like a plan." Ellis nodded while picking up his hunting rifle he had acquired some ways back before the barn house. "I dun like this barn so much..."

"Why not Elle, ain't ya feelin' right at home?" It had been awhile since Nick patronized Ellis for his accent, and it was starting to get annoying already, since he was just trying to pick a fight with the southerner still. Ellis turned to walk backwards to face Nick's general direction, since he wasn't in view.

"Ha, ha, ha." Ellis' normal enthusiasm didn't show as he looked at the gambler. "C'mon Rikki, we got sum shit to find, _eh_? Hehehe..."

"I don't need to tell you to keep an eye on Maddy, right Pedo-Nick?" I smirked at the reaction of Nick's irritated glare. His response was nothing more than a middle finger. I grabbed two pistols and slid them into my holsters while acquiring a machete that was hanging on a nearby wall, leading the way out of the barn into the dirt-covered lot between the house and the barn. "Only an eye, kay sport?"

"Yeah whatever, sweetie." Nick scowled; tomato red with frustration and embarrassment of the nickname Kay had coined him when he complimented on the first lunch I made for everyone.

...

It was an old-style farmhouse I suppose, all big and white with a veranda or whatever you call it. Either way, it looked unscathed and deserted. Personally, I think whoever had lived there before we got there would've been fine just where they were, but the emptiness told otherwise.

When we got up to the veranda of the house, the front door was locked and there was a lamp that was on behind it. For a second, I thought there were people still in the house. Ellis looked back at me with a small nod and a grin, for a split second I thought Ellis probably knew how to lock pick, but his form of doing so was far less skilled than Nick's version of getting into locked places. He broke the panel of glass beside the door, witht he butt of his gun, to unlock it from the inside. The place smelled horrible.

"Christ in a hand-basket, this place smells worse than my Aunt Flossie's bathroom." Ellis cringed as I looked back at him with a look that I'd guess looked like disbelief and disgust. I shook my head as he shrugged. "...well, it _was _an outhouse..."

"Hillbillies..." I shook my head again as we moved further into the house. Everything was relatively clean and in place, though there was a lot of dust and flies, and the house didn't show any signs of intrusion apart from the broken glass Ellis had sprayed about upon our entrance. "Well, they didn't leave in a hurry, that's for sure."

"Ya mean they didn' leave at all." Ellis had a hand on the bill of his cap as he looked apprehensively into the living room. Ironically, there were dead people sitting on the couches in the _living_ room. A shotgun explained the bloodiness of the place, the two dead children and their mother with no faces and the father with the back of his head missing and the stench the rotting bodies left. Above them read in blood '_Free our souls_', probably written by the father.

"That's just...so wrong." I grimaced, "Who'd do that...besides that guy...I mean, c'mon, there're no zombies here. At least try to hold out as long as you can, right?"

"I guess some people can't handle the end of the world. Who'd've guessed?" Ellis raised a brow at me with a small smirk, and I caught sarcasm in his voice directed at me. I was a little surprised. "Let's jus git the stuff and git the hell outta here; place is makin' me uncomfortable."

"Yeah, let's." I nodded as we headed to the kitchen of the house. There were bottles of water in some cupboards, along with chips and pop of different sorts. There was rotting food in the fridge. I found out that the oven was still working. I checked the freezer to see if there was anything worth salvaging. I was grabbing blankets when I decided to check on Ellis, who was moving around in a different room. "Find anything, Elle?"

"Aww-ha-man! Well looky what we got here, Rikk!" Ellis was cheering away as he held up a pack of beer, Kokanee to be exact. I smiled with him. "What'd you find?"

"Water, blankets, chips and pop; the oven's working so me and Ro can make cake for Maddy!" I was quite happy with the turnout of supplies I didn't think we'd find. "Oh, right...gotta find some oil."

"For what? We ain't got a car or 'nthing." Ellis raised a brow and tilted his head. I shook my head again, with my eyebrows knitting themselves together.

"Boy, you seriously haven't cooked _anything_ have you?" I asked, a little bit of disbelief staining my voice as Ellis shook his head, almost proudly if anything. "I need _cooking_ oil to _cook_ the cake, silly."

"Oh, I sooo knew that." Ellis rolled his eyes with a smirk hanging on his face, a little embarrassed. "Are we ready ta leave yet? They'll probably be wonderin' what's takin' so long."

"Yeah, help me bring the blankets back will ya?" I chucked a few blankets at the southerner who gave one last uncomfortable look at the dead family in the living room. I turned to leave, but I still heard Ellis' quiet thank you to the owners of the house for the supplies they obviously wouldn't need anymore. We left the house and made our way back to the barn.

...

"So...what was up with Nick last night?" Ellis questioned me, with a look of slight apprehension, like he was nervous of talking with me. I realised at that point that I had never actually had a one on one conversation with the southerner; it was always with Rochelle or Nick.

"Huh?" I replied, since I wasn't aware at the time that he'd heard Nick the night before. Ellis sighed as he readjusted the blankets and water he had in one hand and the case of beer he had in the other.

"I saw you guys kiss last night...but you guys always say you dun like each other, how come?" Ellis was a little pink as he thought he that explained everything. I shook my head a little at him, while he looked back with confusion. "Huh?"

"We didn't kiss Ellis, it was..." What the hell was it? I couldn't think of what to say, since it probably _did_ look like a kiss from his view from the doorway, where he probably was standing. "It wasn't a kiss..."

"Whatever, Rikk. Y'know, you kin tell Ellis anything." Ellis smiled, almost mischievously, at me. I probably looked confused. "I won't tell, promise! I jus wanna know sumthin', that's all."

"What's there to know, Ellis?" I felt a little uncomfortable to be honest, are you supposed to feel uncomfortable when you're talking with a friend about that kind of stuff?

"I dunno, I mean...I ain't ever seen Nick so...tamed, I think thas the word I'm lookin' for." Ellis had the habit of thinking he explained everything in one sentence, and it got annoying sometimes, since I never caught on what he was hinting at.

"And?" I just wanted to get back into the barn; it seemed farther than it really was while heading back to it.

"Why d'you two insist ya don't like each other? I want a real answer though, otherwise it dun count." Ellis stopped in front of me, his curious eyes scanning my reaction. My reaction was not in my favour, since I went red and felt the instinct to avoid the conversation altogether. "C'mon, spit it out missy."

"Hey, I told him I like him on the boat, remember?" I knew that wouldn't suffice, but it was worth a shot. Ellis shook his head a little, with a grin forming at my reaction of scrambling to find a different answer or change of subject.

"You weren' sarcastic or 'nthing were you?" I gave a slightly nervous smile, since I think I was sarcastic that time. Why did it matter to Ellis so much?

"Ellis, c'mon man. Why does it matter?" I tried to walk around him, but even with full hands, Ellis managed to stop me from going by him. Giving up for a moment, I decided to hear him out.

"It matters 'cause you're my friends, and even though it don't seem it, he's happier 'round you." Ellis smiled a little, "And I betcha if he hears us talkin' out here, he'll be lookin' out the door ta make sure nothin's up. _Don't look_."

"Okay, well. Yeah, if you must know, I like the guy. I'm not entirely comfortable with the age difference, and it bugs me that everyone else is." I sighed, hoping that'd be the end of the conversation. Ellis didn't look satisfied. I peeked over his shoulder discreetly anyways, and Ellis was right, Nick _was_ peeking out of the door. But obviously, he was trying to make it look like he didn't care. "And yeah, he's looking out."

"I told ya so. I know he likes you too." Ellis shrugged, with possibly the biggest grin his face had harboured in awhile. I shrugged.

"When he's drunk or out of his mind on pain pills, yeah, I guess." I scrunched my nose slightly, remembering the bathroom, the pool hall and the night before all at once. I hated that feeling, being overwhelmed or whatever. "Otherwise, he's never like that."

"Well, y'know what they say; a drunk man's actions are a sober man's thoughts." Ellis nodded as if it was reassuring. "But the pain pill thing...never mind. My point bein' s'that Nick likes ya no matter what he says. Besides, age don't matter none; this one time Keith was dating a lady in her fifties, on account for he lost a bet that he could break a bottle on his own head ta Dave. Well, he only had to take her out on _a_ date, but they was dating fer a few months before anyone told Keith he didn' hafta keep seeing her. When Dave actually told him, Keith shrugged an' said: 'She makes better food than my ma, I ain't givin' that up jus yet!' Point in case, age dun' matter s'long's yer happy."

"Well...good. I think." I tried to make myself look convinced, acting was never my forte. That became clear when Ellis stopped me again. "Ellis, I just want to go to sleep. What?"

"You dun believe me. I kin see that." Ellis gave a playful frown. "I kin show you what I mean, if he's still lookin'."

"Ellis, what do you mean...?" I sighed, wondering what on earth Ellis was trying to prove. Nick was still staring out of the door, but he looked a little restless behind the bars of the door, from what I could see. Ellis dropped what he was holding and leaned in close, so close that his nose touched mine and tilted his head as his hands rested lightly on my hips. "Ellis?"

"Shh...I ain't gonna kiss ya, just make it look like it. You'll see." Ellis chuckled, almost darkly, as I complied by putting my arms around his neck; seeing his point. I heard the safe room bar come off and footsteps approach us. "See?"

There was no warning, unless the footsteps count, that anything would happen. Nick came up, turned Ellis around –a grin in place as he was going to explain himself– as Nick's fist met with the explanation first hand. Ellis fell backwards, holding his nose that had blood coming out of it. I don't think the rings helped favourably for anyone, besides Nick. He raised his clenched fist to go in for another one, but I hopped in front of him before he got the chance to, his hand stopping a mere few centimetres away from my face. "Nick!"

"The hell was this hillbilly doing to you?" Nick straightened up slightly, lowering his fist and replacing it with a glare. I met his eyes with a small smirk, which apparently gave the wrong message since Nick wove around me to try punching him again. I stopped him before anything else happened by hopping back in front of him, placing a gentle hand on the clenched fist before it could go anywhere.

"Nick, stop it! Ellis didn't do anything besides make a point." I didn't know if I should laugh or not, since it probably wasn't funny on Ellis' end. He laughed, however, as he pulled himself up. "Didn't you, Elle?"

"I suuuure did. Though I think my nose mighta got broke in the process." Ellis was still holding his nose that was gushing blood, "But I still made my point, didn' I Rikki?"

"What the _hell_ are you two talking about? All I saw was Ellis trying to cheat on Kay." Nick huffed; clearly unaware of whatever was going to pan out within the next few minutes. Ellis just shook his head, which didn't help the bleeding at all.

"No no no, Nick, that ain't what happened." Ellis was trying to start off his reasoning, regardless of Nick's look to kill. I think even I was aware of why Nick got mad. "All I was trying to do was prove that you like her–"

"Oh really, then explain–" Nick's reddened face was complete with a glare that would've scared Fluffy off, had he not been wandering around in the orchard doing tank stuff. Ellis held a hand up to try signal that he was still talking, although Nick kept talking, making the next few words jumble together. It sounded a little like:

"Why you thought kissing her (Nick, I'm still talking here man) was a good idea to prove anything? (You're jus makin' it more obvious by getting mad) Yeah, wait no, I'm not mad (then why'd ya punch me?)Because I hate you." That's all I could really pick out, since they were talking at the same time. I realized Rochelle and Luke had come outside to see what all the commotion was about. I didn't want to move away from the two squabbling men, since they'd probably start using fists.

"Hey, that's enough you two!" I was growing annoyed; the slight high-school-girl-feeling-of-knowing-your-crush-liked-you was long gone. I don't exactly know what they were saying, since either one drowned out the other one once the other would start to be audible. "Just shut up Nick! I thought you don't care about the others, now...unless you like Kay, care explain why you came out here and punched Ellis for no reason?" That shut him up, and made Ellis crack up with laughter.

"Because– shut _up_ Elle...Because Ellis is in a relationship and shouldn't be doing that." Nick grumbled, not looking at anyone anymore. I smiled, knowing Ellis had proved his point to me quite clearly, and tilted my head to try and keep eye contact with the gambler.

("Yeah, coming from the divorced man because he couldn't keep track of names..." Ellis mumbled quietly while holding his head forward in hopes the bleeding would stop as I was talking.)

"And...?" I motioned for him to continue, but he wouldn't without being more prompted. "That made you mad because...?"

"Wait, what do you mean no reason?" He ignored Ellis' comment and was starting to avoid answering my question. "He kissed you, no?"

"No. But that didn't answer me. Why'd you get mad?" I smiled lightly at the face that was filled with more confusion than anger now. "You like Kay then?"

"Rikki, Ellis? What the hell's going on here?" Nick raised an annoyed brow at the both of us; I was smiling lightly and Ellis kept his smile without showing teeth since his nose still had blood running out of it. "And no, I don't like Kay...or Ellis for that matter."

"That means you either came out here to just randomly punch Ellis then, because you obviously don't like me, right?" I grinned at Nick's reddening face as he looked at the group before he looked back at me. They were watching just as intently. I think it's safe to say that everyone wanted to just hear Nick admit it out loud, but he didn't. "I mean, unless you're a closet gay and you're just jealous that Ellis might've been kissing someone other than y..."

"Oh, fuck off." Nick turned around swiftly, but not fast enough since I think we all saw him blush before he turned away to walk back inside. I had bad timing, I guess, since he looked like he was going to answer me before I went and spoke up. I decided to follow him into the barn, since that was my main intention anyways; I was sleepy. I caught up with him though; he was still red and didn't look at me. "You planned that, didn't you."

"It was all Ellis, I swear!" I held my hands up in innocence. "I didn't know Ellis would do _that_. Beside the point, why'd you blush when I mentioned 'gay'?"

"You're fantastic timing? I don't know." Nick grumbled, while snatching the blanket I brought for him from me to lie down on his space that he made for himself in a stable, away from everyone else. I remained standing there, wondering half-heartedly if Nick would ever get around to actually telling me what his thoughts were about me, if any. That sounds silly, I know. Obviously he wasn't in the mood for joking around, well judging from his stare that was set on me as he sat down.

"Well, I was joking if you couldn't tell..." His stare had not lightened up in the least, but his lips weren't in a rigid line anymore. He still didn't look like he wanted to talk. "Okay well, whatever Nicky. You know...it's cold in here, so if you want to-"

"Yeah yeah, you'll save a spot for me." Nick's mouth curled upwards ever so slightly, but the snootiness that toned his voice made me want to take my words back, so I did before I said them.

"You could go cuddle with Ellis. I'll make sure nobody will judge you, 'kay sport?" I cocked an eyebrow before turning to go see if Ellis' nose had stopped bleeding.

.

Rochelle and Luke went up to the house to see if there was toilet paper or anything to help Ellis out. I think that was just an excuse though, for them to do the nasty. Haaha...sex. His nose looked messed up, like crooked. I sat there staring at Ellis for a minute before he gave up on straightening his nose and looked at me. I decided to help the poor fellow out, since he was in pain trying to fix it up himself, and toilet paper wasn't going to help a crooked nose. I put my thumbs on the sides of his nose before cringing from the awaited crunch of the cartilage going roughly back into place. The blood was flowing even more, but whatever pain Ellis felt, he just scrunched his eyes, since he didn't want to wake anyone. "Thanks Rikki."

"No problem, Ellis. Um..." Ellis stared at me, looking kind of dizzy, as I grabbed out two small tampons out of a pocket of my bag, feeling a little embarrassed and wondering if it would actually help the problem. "...I might have something for the bleeding. I saw it in a movie once."

"Uh, Rikk, those're...ah hell, let's give'm a shot." Ellis tilted his head back as he grabbed the toiletries from me to do it himself. He looked ridiculous, but it seemed to have done the trick. "Well...I think it worked."

"I'm sorry about your nose, Ellis." I sighed, sitting on the sleeping bag he had laid out close by the rest of us. We had made a big pile of hay around Maddy and intended on huddling together, since the nights were starting to become colder. Ellis just shrugged as he smiled absently towards the ceiling of the barn then at the chickens that were already asleep. "But, thank you. Even though he didn't say anything..."

"He didn' need to. But, yeah, you're welcome. Maybe not 'anytime' in this case, but you git it." Ellis nodded with a smile. He looked crazy with the smile, the hat that shaded his eyes, and tampons in his nose; that didn't stop me from giving him a hug. Having never even shaken the guy's hand, I suppose it was only natural for him to get a little embarrassed. "Oh! Well...heh."

"You're crazy, you know that, right?" I smiled at Ellis, who shrugged while I asked the question while letting go of his warm figure. It was indeed quite chilly, but I shoved the notion to cuddle up with everyone around me for warmth aside. Ellis' hand stayed on my shoulder for a second longer with a sideways grin. "Are you sure your nose will be okay? I mean, if it _is_ broken–"

"Dun worry about me; you jus go on ta bed, 'kay Rikki?" Ellis smiled with a kind nod while I lay down beside Maddy. I smiled back lightly, still feeling bad about his nose. But if that didn't say Nick liked me, I don't know what did.

"Good night, Ellis..." I fell asleep while speaking, I think. It had been a long day, albeit quiet for the most part.

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**A/N: Yeah, I have been feeling a little blocked. I have my idea board laid out in clear view, I know what I want to come of this story; I just don't know how to portray it with words, and as such I'm scrutinizing my chapters word for word at least 100,000,000,000,000 x over. Hopefully, that's not too much. **** Review your thoughts, portray your comments, inbox me anything you think you'd like to see, because filler chapters tend to be the most fun to write. ;D**


	17. Decorating

**A/N: I'M SORRY COOKIE MONSTER & K.C& GABBI®IROISEEL! And the rest of ya who've stuck with me this far YOU ROCK but...I suck at keeping the updates coming regularly. But graduating and classes took up quite a bit of my time! Anyways...I think I'm getting into L4D2 all over again, since I FINALLY own it...and I'm playing the crap outta it. (which eats up a good chunk of my free time) I hope this can make up for it for a bit until I pop out chap 18! Otherwise...IIII'MMM BAAAAAAAACK :D**

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**Chapter Seventeen: Decorating**

I woke up, feeling chilly since Maddy thought she needed more blankets and took mine. I had a white jacket on my legs, and I was in the process of kicking it off the sack to sit alongside with the blanket I gave Nick the night before, on the floor. Confused, I looked around to see Nick sitting beside a large bucket that was over flowing with soap, his sleeves rolled up and everything. He was cleaning something. I slipped on his jacket to try warm up before going to go see what was up. When I felt awake enough to process that I slept with no jacket or blankets, I stood up to go see Nick. Nobody else was awake.

"Hey, Nick?" I approached the busy man slowly, so as not to startle him. I stopped a few steps behind him. "What're you doing?"

I startled him anyways. His head snapped up in my direction for the briefest of moments before once again going elbow deep in the soapy water. "I'm cleaning off Maddy's bear. Doesn't look fun hugging a crusty, red bear; this thing is yellow, did you know that?"

"How cute. Got attached I see?" I smiled at Nick; he just kept his stare and concentration on the dark red water before him. I could tell it took a lot not to say anything back. I sat down and watched Nick as he washed the bear; it was already clean, but I think he hoped I'd get bored and walk away. "So why'd you punch Ellis? You never gave the real reason."

Nick stopped scrubbing and took the bear out while turning to look at me briefly, before squishing out the excess water. He left the bear on the ground beside him, along with a small box that said 'Happy Birthday, Kiddo'. Smiling, I moved a little closer to Nick, who simply stepped back with a small frown on his face while plopping his hands in his pants pockets. "..."

"I think you're taking the whole thing too seriously...are you really that mad?" I inquired, with the best smile I could muster without annoyance trying to show through. I stepped closer to him again, breaking his bubble of personal space to stare up at him. Nick just shrugged, with a sigh that followed. His expression softened slightly as he looked back at me with an unsure, half-hearted smile while resting his forehead on mine for a couple of moments. "I didn't think so."

"So, how was the kid's nose?" Nick tended to be good at the whole avoidance thing, so I decided to humour him for a few moments. I shrugged, straightening up a little.

"Well, it looks fractured, or...probably busted..." I shrugged, there was slight amusement placed on Nick's face, "Nick, it's not funny. As far as I'm concerned, you did that for no reason."

"Well, I don't like him. That's not enough reason?" I sighed, wondering why I had to hear what I wanted to. Then a quick surprise came; there was a soft breath on my nose before the briefest contact of lips on mine while a pair of arms slipped around my waist. Utterly surprised, I looked up at Nick who wore a slight grin. "I don't like that he did that. I don't like to be made...jealous. It fucks with my head."

"Yeah? I like you too, Nick." I grinned, resting my forehead against his. He slipped his arms away from me, with a small smile still slightly playing on his lips as he moved his forehead away from me. The reality of where we were returned. I looked for a change of subject, and motioned to the bear. "So...cleaning this thing for Maddy... That's the Nick way of saying: 'You're alright, kid. Don't ever leave me.', right?"

"Shut up." Nick grumbled. It seemed true. Whatever shields Nick had erected to protect himself from growing attached to anyone seemed to have been broken for quite some time. He probably blamed Ellis, Rochelle and Coach. I don't think he ever considered the possibility of himself actually _liking_ the company of people. It took a zombie apocalypse to show him that he did, even if he didn't admit it. Maddy had taken to holding Nick's hand, and asking him loads of questions. Questions he hardly answered until she found his sweet spot. Poker. Her daddy liked poker and was trying to teach her, but then the zombies spoiled that plan. She didn't seem to understand a single thing Nick was teaching her while we journeyed to the safe-house we were in at that moment, but her eyes were bright and interested and he actually chuckled at the face she made when she tried to remember what a royal flush was. In short, it was cute how close he let the little girl get to him. I just kept my stare that felt full of cheekiness on Nick; his eyebrows pulled down and he gave a defeated frown. "I...have a sort of soft spot for kids...that's why I hate them."

"Because...that makes sense..." I tilted my head slightly. "Well, that almost makes that nickname su-"

"Oh, go away. Don't you have some party to plan?" Nick rolled his eyes, but a small smirk still played on his lips. Hopefully, that meant everyone could be in a good mood for the day. I heard Ellis' open-mouthed snore, and I was reminded of his nose that seemed to be busted.

.

"Rikkiiiiii..." Maddy sat up, a sleepy frown on her small face. "I'm cold."

"Here." I took my sweater off and plopped it on her small frame, rolling up the sleeves so her hands could still be useful. The day was quite cold, for the amount of sun that seemed to be outside, giving the impression of a warm summer day. The jean jacket that adorned my favourite iron on patches felt stiff and cold against my arms, being in a t-shirt and all.

Rochelle and Luke were chattering quietly, and didn't seem in any sort of hurry to get up and get Maddy distracted from the barn house. Nick strode over to Ellis and gave him a slight nudge with his foot, and then another when Ellis didn't respond right away.

"Mornin' Fancy Suit." Ellis yawned and spoke flatly; it probably shouldn't have been so surprising that Ellis could be annoyed with someone longer than a day, but then again, it was Nick he was annoyed with.

"Ellis, what the hell is in your nose?" Nick quirked a brow up, genuinely caught off guard at the sight of the two tampon strings hanging out of the southerner's nose. Ellis gave a disdainful stare as he removed them and carefully wiped his nose, wincing every now and then. It was strange seeing Ellis so quiet and straight-faced.

"These things wouldn' have to be there if yew didn' go an' jump ta conclusions, Nick." Ellis grumbled, wincing at every few words, his southern accent more apparent and huskier than ever. I think it probably hurt to talk, since the nose moves slightly with any word one says. "Why can't you just tell–"

"Hey listen up, kid; the next time you come up with a _brilliant_ idea in that goober brain of yours, think of how somebody could react to it. Okay, sport?" Nick sucked at apologies, and considering the fact he interrupted people, but at least he didn't sound sarcastic with Ellis; he even ruffled his hair for a split second, but probably just for good measure. Ellis just cracked a tiny grin. Ellis seemed to have a hard time staying mad at anyone for anything. Even for a broken nose.

"Well, nice to see everyone awake so bright and early." Luke spoke up for the first time in a long while. He sat up and stretched sleepily. Everyone acknowledged each other quietly; it felt like an awkward morning after a party or something, you know, the kind of morning nobody wants to talk much, but do anyways?

Maddy gave a frustrated sigh, pacing around her little sleeping area. "Where's Mr Snuggles! I know I had him _right there_..."

"Hey, Maddy, I got an idea, c'mere. Now, you gotta promise me to be careful with this," Nick beckoned over to the bothered girl. With her bottom lip sticking out, she trudged over to Nick, who slowly handed her his pistol. Maddy inspected the pistol, looking down the barrel and everything. "and for Christ's sake, don't point it at _you_ or anyone! It's loaded!"

"Nick, just what in the hell do you think you're doing?" Rochelle placed a hand on her hip, a frown directed at the guy in the suit. "She's not old enough to use that thing!"

Maddy lowered the pistol, carefully choosing her next words. "Well, if I don't learn now, I don't think I'll get to _be_ old enough to use one..."

"Heh, the kid stole the words outta my mouth." Nick shrugged, taking Maddy's side in his decision. He turned to me, giving me a small wink before turning back to Maddy. I wasn't thrilled in the least about a seven year old holding a gun, shooting at dead people, but they were right. I guess. "well, want to go try it out?"

"Yeah!" Maddy hopped in slight excitement, eyes bright as she stared up at Nick with a huge smile. "As long as target practice isn't Fluffy..."

.

"Well, at least it gives us time to get set up, hey?" Rochelle gave a defeated sigh, while fumbling around in her backpack. I nodded with a slight frown. I still wasn't too happy. But everyone was right, there'd be time to set up, make a cake and maybe meals if there was anything useful in the fridge or whatever. Plus, Maddy would be learning to defend herself a lot better than with her machete she was pretty afraid to use as it was. Maybe, Nick and Ellis would help her toughen up.

"Mhmm..." I started to dig around for the little decorations that Rochelle had grabbed, and looked for things to set up a little surprise birthday party.

* * *

**Nick's POV**

I gotta admit, the kid was a good shot, but she was afraid of shooting the gun. I guess I couldn't blame her; she was only seven, but nine out of ten head shots…that's pretty damned impressive. Maddy looked up at me, and then back at the zombies that had randomly appeared in the distance. Zombies seemed to be great at finding live humans, because just the day before, there wasn't a zombie in sight. But Maddy's shooting made sure the undead population didn't grow more than it needed to.

"Did I do good or what, Mr Nick?" Maddy grinned with a tilt of her head. She handed me the pistol again, because she was either too stubborn to learn to reload it herself, or she really didn't understand how to reload.

"Yeah, real good. Hey, look, this is the last time I'm reloading it for you, okay? I can't be doing this when there're a lot of zombies around…" I reloaded the gun slowly, showing her in baby steps how the mag was supposed to click in. She did the other one, with quite some frustration, but she did it. "There you go, you got it now."

Maddy's smile was kind of contagious. I heard Ro talk about Ellis' smile being contagious, but I never agreed with it since he always smiled like a moron. Okay, maybe I smiled a little bit when it seemed right. But with Maddy, it was different. She had these big eyes that could let you know exactly how she felt, and her own little attitude that made you wonder just what goes on in her mind, and this big smile that seemed to be full of wonder. She reminded me of…me I guess, y'know, before I realized the world was one fucked up piece of shit that would never get any better. I guess I was right. Either way, I couldn't help but grin every time she smiled up at me.

I hated that.

Rikki wasn't impressed with me, and I think I was trying to figure out a good reason to back up my choice to teach Maddy how to shoot. Then again, Maddy had pretty much summed it up on her own.

"Hey, Nick?" Maddy's perky voice chimed into my line of vague thoughts. "Did you see Mr Snuggles at all? 'Cause I know I had him when I was sleeping..."

"I'm sure he'll turn up, Maddy. Just keep shooting."

"'Kay.." Maddy sighed and slowly aimed at a distant zombie, putting a bullet through his head.

"Heh, that was a purdy good shot, Maddy!" I could hear Ellis coming up from behind us, and I couldn't help but scowl. I had a nagging feeling the girls sent him out. "Where'd you learn ta shoot like that?"

"Mr Nick! He's real good at it so.." Maddy and Ellis had this thing...almost like a little kid thing that made them connect pretty well. Admittedly, I felt somewhat left out of the loop. I'm not even sure why I cared. While Maddy was focusing on reloading her pistol, Ellis had it in his head to talk to me regardless of any scowling that signalled I didn't want to talk.

"Hey Nick? Ya know, I can forgive you for punching me like that, hell I would if I thought someone was kissin' up _my_ girl." Ellis put a hand on my shoulder, I was trying to focus on just supervising Maddy and making sure she wasn't point the gun at herself while reloading. I shoved his hand off of me without thinking since Ellis didn't quite figure out I wasn't the whole touchy-feely talker with other males.

"Ellis, would you just shut up, she-" I started to talk, but Ellis also had this thing about interrupting people when they weren't saying what he wanted to hear.

"Now before you go all ape-shit about not liking Rikki, how 'bout _yew_ shut up and think about what yewr sayin'?" Ellis scrunched his face up and wiggled his nose, he was probably annoyed that he was sounding super hillbilly and it took all I had not to laugh at his seriousness. "Fuckin' nose is makin' me sound all stupid, but I mean what I'm sayin', Nick. Yew keep sayin' yew don't care about anyone, but here yew are holdin' hands with Maddy and sometimes Rikki and yew go and make the poor girl think she's got a chance with Mr Hotshot-has-been-conman-who-killed-a-guy and then yew turn around and say 'NO, that's not it at all'? I'm tryin' to understand this man, and yewr not doin' anythin' to help me understand. I mean, I thought I'm yewr friend, for what, three years now? The world is ending man, and yew're passin' up the opportunity to be with someone who actually likes yew for _yew!_"

"Ellis, since when the hell is this situation _your_ problem?" I rolled my eyes, admittedly, I hated to shove off people _all _the time, but when people start digging into my personal life and what not, I get defensive. So sue me. I sighed, looking back at Ellis who was still looking at me with determination to get _something_ out of me. "Look, I'm not a relationship kind of guy, but I do consider you my friend, even if you're completely retarded and set the general standard of annoying, you can be tolerated. Take that and run, El, because you're not getting any better appreciation from me than that. Now about Rikki, that's a whole different ball-park."

"Meanin'?" Ellis didn't seem at all phased by my words, in fact he seemed pleased when I said 'friend'. I didn't want to answer him, because truthfully, the ball park analogy was vague because _I_ didn't know what to make of Rikki just yet. "well, yew're gonna have ta talk to me soon."

"Hey, I'm hungry, when are we gonna eat?" Maddy always seemed to be oblivious to the adults' conversations, but that was something else I could appreciate about the kid. I just took the pistol from Maddy and returned it to my holster.

"Now probably, I think we've been out long enough, and there're no more zombies to shoot anyways, thanks to you." I smiled down at her look of accomplishment. It was already starting to get automatic on grabbing Maddy's tiny hand in mine before going anywhere. Ellis chuckled as he walked behind us, so I gave him the finger. He only laughed harder as we walked back to the barn house.

* * *

**Rikki's POV**

So we had everything ready to go including the cake. I still find it weird that there were no zombies around trying to rip us up or anything, but hey, I wasn't complaining. Ellis had left some time beforehand to go see if Maddy needed help with her gun, Nick or both. Mostly because Rochelle had gotten frustrated with Ellis' decorating skills; he kept mixing up the 'colour scheme' Rochelle had planned out and it resulted in him going to see what else he could do to help. Turned out the only useful thing he managed to do was rant about Keith or Nick and find another case of beer. So Rochelle sent him away.

There were lime green and pink swirly decorations handing from the string me and Ro had strung across from one stable to the opposite and different coloured balloons hanging in bunches around the barn. The table was set up and had mashed potatoes, corn and a roasted chicken (that Luke had prepared against my discretion since Maddy had already named it). I even managed to get Fluffy inside the barn and adorned him with a Transformers birthday hat and got him to hold party sparklers that went unlit for the time being.

"Okay, that about wraps it up, should we go get the other three?" Rochelle looked at me and Luke for approval of the collection of motley decorations hanging about, making the empty barn feel at least a little more cheery. Maddy was turning seven after all; it was an occasion to be happy about, despite the dismal situation of society. We agreed to call in the others and get the birthday started. Putting on our own hats, a collection of Transformers, Elmo and Sailor Moon, we went to go get Nick, Ellis and Maddy, but they were already filing in.

* * *

**A/N: So I realize that there was little to no decorating in this chapter, and that I haven't posted a chapter since...gawd knows when...well actually FanFic knows but I'm lazy to check. Maybe I'll finish up 18 and post it within the day ;D...on the bright side of the long wait; this time of the year is around the time Maddy's birthday is anyways..maybe it'll at to the story reading experience..but that's probably just hopeful wishing .**

**Hope you're enjoying this story as much as I am enjoying writing it!. And I'll do my absolute bestest to keep the updates coming...cause I'm now a COLLEGE GIRL! Which means I'm busy pretty much all of the damned time ._. **

**~Grammatica~**


	18. A Birthday and a Half

**A/N: The first thing I might mention is that I already had this partially written since I decided that chapter 17 would be too long if I included this! So I'll do my best to try keep up this speed, but mind you, I have plenty of tests, assignments and homework to do also! That kind of sets my time writing about zombies and killing them to about 1/8 what it used to be...since I like to have a life aside from college too! Oh well, I'll just promise that there will be no promises about regular updates, ok? Ok. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Eighteen: A Birthday and a Half**

"**Surprise!**" everyone shouted and smiled at the expression of pure surprise and glee that was etched all over Maddy's face. The sparklers Fluffy had been holding were lit, and he was grunting with us like he was trying to say the words too. Ellis rushed over to get the last Transformers birthday hat. Maddy ran right over to me and Ro to give us her biggest bear hug.

"You remembered! I almost forgot!" Maddy giggled and grabbed a Sailor Moon hat and ran over to Fluffy. She giggled and smiled in approval at the beasts new look. "Aww Fluffy, you look sooo cute!"

"If that's the new standard of cute...I don't want any part of it." Rochelle whispered to me, "Did you decorate him?"

I chuckled and nodded. I found Fluffy to be rather adorable in his own sense; he was re-learning how to do basic human gestures like waving, walking without looking like a baboon and even tried smiling for Maddy's birthday's sake. It looked pretty funny actually, since Fluffy didn't seem to have the capability of putting his tongue back into his mouth. Plus, he was pretty handy to have around when things got too crowded, zombie-wise of course.

"Anyone hungry?" I asked everyone around me and gestured to the food on the table for everyone to take a seat. Once everyone was seated and served by me and Ro, everyone was starting to dig in before Maddy and Ellis practically yelled at all of us not to just yet.

"Hey! No! We're supposed to say grace before we eat anything!" Maddy said in practical unity with Ellis, and they both held the same expression of astonishment that anyone would want to start eating without praying beforehand. "Mommy always said so." Maddy finished, with Ellis nodding in approval of Maddy's words.

Everyone looked at one another; it didn't seem like anyone other than Ellis and Maddy prayed, and probably more than just the occasional prayer. I snapped my eyes and shook my head at Nick as he was opening his mouth to say something to Maddy. He shut up before he spoke and looked a little thoughtful at what to say instead. "Well come on people, _someone_ has to say something. Maybe if we all bow our heads, someone will miraculously say something so we can eat."

"Nick." Rochelle snapped at Nick, who ignored her altogether and didn't look up from his prayer stance, a look that suited him but was also freakishly out of the ordinary to see. I guess you had to know him to see it both ways. Everyone relented and followed Nicks' surprising lead. Maddy's little voice rang over the lovely silence of the world around us.

"Dear Lord, bless everyone I now know and help us get through our time of need. I know you're not being mean to us and that this is the devil's way of challenging you. I'm happy you chose to take m-my family away from this place and that t-th-they're safe w-with you..." Maddy took a little breather from trying not to cry, "and I'm happy you led me to my new family. Please don't take them away from me too. Amen." Everyone followed suit at the end of the prayer, even Nick. Maddy's little prayer spoke volumes of how much older beyond her years Maddy actually was. Now she was crying, but she smiled at all of us.

"We'll never leave you, Maddy. You don't have to worry about that." I put my arm around the little girl and started to eat with my other hand, being the starving bastard I was. I cared for the prayer, really I did. Maddy wiped her tears away and looked up at everyone who smiled and nodded.

"You promise?" Maddy's shaky little voice kept stinging at me, and I got a flashback of me and Bandit when we were little. I said I'd never leave her, and yet she was across the country, probably confused and hurt that I wasn't around, but hopefully safe at the same time. Suddenly, I felt less hungry.

"Well duhhh...we ain't leavin' anyone we care for!" Ellis smiled at the child. She seemed to react more when Ellis confirmed the impossibility of her fears; she smiled at Ellis and started to babble about how she really liked the corn. Everyone followed suit and talked about anything, even just talking for the sake of talking. "Hey ya'll, I almost forgot about this."

Ellis ran off to the house and ran back with a case of beer under each arm. Everyone gave a small cheer for Ellis' small accomplishment of unearthing beer from a garage that looked kind of like place that deserved to be in that show called "Hoarders".

"I gotta hand it to the kid; only a hillbilly can rummage through that mess and find beer." Nick smirked as he caught the beer Ellis chucked at him with his own look of mild annoyance at the older man.

"What's beer?" Maddy looked up at Nick and then to the rest of the adults around her. Ellis chuckled and held his beer can in front of Maddy for her to smell. "Ewww...why are you guys drinking that?"

"Because it's what adults tend to do, Maddy." Luke chuckled as she remade her disgusted look at the smell of beer, which we all lightly laughed at.

"You guys drink pee?" Maddy grimaced, "I mean Abby used to do that, by accidentally of course though...like this one time, mommy was changing her and she rolled over into her own -"

"Ugh, enough Maddy, ok?" Rochelle held up a hand from hearing Maddy's little kid stories about tasting bodily functions. "I'm almost not hungry or thirsty anymore..."

"Yeah, we get enough of that from Ellis. El, you really gotta stop rubbing off on this kid, okay?" I teased the mechanic, who both he and Maddy just smiled back at me innocently. "And you, Maddy, you'll like beer when you get old enough."

"Nah, I think I'll like wine more..." Maddy trailed off, "Mommy used to drink what she called 'stinky grape juice'; I always believed that's what it was until she left it out one night when the babysitter, Bree, decided to have some. I was gonna tell on her until I got her to pour me a little to try. It was...okaaaay...though I know why mommy called it that now..."

"Well, you're Canadian, beer'll grow on you." I assured Maddy while taking an almost cautious sip of my beer; it had seemed like ages since my last drink, not saying I'm an alcoholic or anything but it was the best thing my taste buds had had in quite some time, probably because it made me feel like some normality returned to my life. Maddy just shuddered one last time but then looked up at me again, from her empty plate and a look of questioning.

"Where's Professor Cluck?" Maddy looked around for her short-lived, beloved chicken and then back to me. I tried to avoid her stare, but Maddy's big brown eyes were demanding and had something about them that made you pay attention to her. "Where'd he go?"

"Umm...well dinner was great, don't you think?" Luke attempted to divert the child's attention elsewhere, but it didn't work.

"What did you do to him!" Maddy looked appalled as she took a second glance at people still eating the chicken in silence. "YOU BASTARDS! There's other chickens, y'know. You all suck."

"What did I do?" Ellis and Nick responded to the outcry of Maddy's. Maddy pouted and looked angrily at everyone around her, especially at Luke who refrained from looking at the kid at all. She stood up and walked towards Luke with such an angry vibe around her that Luke backed away a little, despite her small stature. For good reason too; Maddy let her feet loose on Luke's shins and didn't stop until Luke basically ran away from her outburst of rage over a dead chicken. And then she looked back at me, since I knew which one was Professor Cluck.

"Kid's kick freaking hurts..." Luke came back to the table since he figured he was safe since Maddy was storming towards me now.

"You! You _knew_ which one was Professor Cluck, how come you let him make dinner out of him?" Maddy sputtered out incredulously as she pointed at me. Keeping her a safe distance from me, I took her small hands in mine and pulled her aside away from the table, feeling her disdain at contact. I knelt down to her level and looked her in the eye. "I don't like you."

"Sure you don't, Maddy...Hey, when I told him which chicken to use and that Professor Cluck was off limits, I was decorating and then I remembered to make sure he didn't do anything stupid. Well, when I turned around he was already cooking him because he'd already forgotten which chicken was which. I'm so sorry Maddy...I'm sorry we're stuck with a pile of idiotic men. And where did you learn to curse like that?" I did my best to reason with her, and it seemed to have worked since Maddy just nodded with a hint of irritation still on her face. Standing up, we walked back to the table to join the others as she explained herself.

Despite herself, Maddy giggled, and then laughed at the whole situation. "I heard Mr Nick and Elly-bear saying stuff like that when we were killing zombies outside; like kill all sunsabit-."

"Hey, stop repeating them! Ugh...Why doesn't that surprise me..."I snorted at her comments as we took a seat. "Wait, Elly-bear!"

"Hey, Mad Hatter...what'd I say about sayin' that name front of everybody?" Ellis went pink as the girls in the barn house giggled at him.

"Okay, I'll bite, what's with the nicknames?" Rochelle smiled as she finished her mashed potatoes and looked curiously at Maddy and Ellis.

"I dunno where the kid came up with Elly-bear, but we was talkin' about movies, ended up talkin' about Alice in Wonderland and found out that we could make a nickname outta 'Maddy'." Ellis explained as he guiltily finished his last bite of chicken, and washing it down quickly with his beer. "Mad Hatter, that's what this kid is when she wants to be."

"Oh right! Speaking of Wonderland... Ellis, it's your unbirthday today! Remember, remember when we were talking about that when we were walking around those trucks?" Maddy's smile was adorable, like she was talking to a beloved big brother.

"Haha! 'Course I 'member, that's why I call yew Mad Hatter now." Ellis grinned back at Maddy and ruffled her hair. Then he sort of sang: "A very merry unbirthday to me!"

"To who?" Maddy teased in a sing-song voice.

"To me!" Ellis chuckled, still playing along.

"Oh you!" Maddy fell over in a pile of giggles since she didn't expect Ellis to actually know how the Unbirthday Song started. "I'm really having fun you guys!"

Rochelle had disappeared only a couple of minutes before hand and was just returning with the cake me and her had made, complete with the candles. I decorated the blank chocolate cake with an almost orange design that resembled a poorly drawn Fluffy with a dopey smile and a birthday hat. It looked funny with just the one colour, but I'm surprised I found any alternate choices of colour at all.

"_Happy birthday to you!..._" Everybody followed suit, singing both in key and off key at the same time to the cheerful little girl who simply lightened up even more at the sight of her cake. She blew out the candles after making a considerate looking wish, since she took a minute to think.

"Well...I think it's time for presents!" Everyone looked at one another once Rochelle said this, expectantly waiting for someone to present the child with a present. Ellis was the first one to react and went to his little sleeping spot to retrieve something before returning. It was small brown package, like a lunch bag. It was also in the shape of a hat. Leave it to Ellis. A hat. But I knew Maddy would be happy for any presents at all, given the circumstances.

The others seemed to have forgot about the kids birthday, and scrambled around to find something suitable for a seven year old even though it didn't seem likely in a barn. Once everyone had regrouped, present-time, as crappy as I figured they'd be, commenced.

First was Ellis' gift, since he was first to get his gift. Even though I knew Nick was really the first one on it. I felt a small smile on my face at the sheer memory of it.

"Here y'are Maddy." Ellis smiled softly at the once again, beaming child. She almost snatched it from him and dumped out the bags content.

It was a hat, like I thought. Though, I didn't think it was a hat exactly like his, only slightly smaller and not dirty or crusted with blood. Nick scowled and the rest half-laughed.

"That's _exactly_ what she needed, El." Nick gave a smile that looked confused on whether or not to look snide or to start a laugh. Ellis simply stuck his tongue out at the conman, who just rolled his eyes.

Rochelle gave her gift next; it was a cute little set of clothes that we all knew would have zombie blood crusted on it by the end of the week. Maddy simply beamed as she ran off to a corner where she could change in decency. "Thanks Ro!"

"Not a problem, sweetie." Ro smiled at how perfectly Maddy fit the little pink and purple set of clothes. Purple skinnies, with fluffy pink socks pulled over them and shoved into black converse and a mini shirt like Ro's. And a white jacket Ro had also picked out, with a blue liner. She was starting to look like an odd combination of Ellis, Rochelle, Nick and me, since the converse were something I snatched from a department store for the kid since her shoes fell apart in some spitter goo a week beforehand. Nick didn't let this go unvoiced.

"Great, now she's gonna look like some messed up hillbilly city slicker." He was going to give his gift next, but Luke beat everybody. That's when Nick's snide side broke the confusion of his smile, which quickly turned into a frown. "Hey!"

"Here you go kid." Luke said; ignoring Nick's annoyed scowl. He handed Maddy her now yellow Mr Snuggles. I'd be annoyed too if a douche stole the teddy I worked hard at getting all of that zombie shit out of with just soap and cold water. Maddy delighted and grabbed the bear from Luke with no questions until Nick spoke up.

"Hey douche-bag, mind telling me where you got that bear?" Nick jabbed a finger at Luke. I knew they weren't on the best of terms, and my feeling of everyone trying to get along for just today was disappearing fast. Luke just turned around with a smug smirk on his face and looked down at the somewhat shorter Nick.

"Well, I _did_ clean it for her." Luke must have been awake earlier than I thought, and I was getting worried Nick would do something stupid and ruin what little fun everyone was already having. I was right; he socked Luke with one swift punch with his left hand that had the two rings that broke Ellis' nose. I wanted to laugh though, as much as I wanted to chew Nick out for doing that; Luke was out cold and Nick turned to Maddy, who squealed in fright.

"_I_ cleaned that stu-...sorry. I'm just mad..." Nick took a breather before kneeling down to Maddy's level to apologize for scaring her. She stared back, still frightened. He reached into his large blazer pocket and took out the box I saw that morning. "Look, I woke up bright and early and took your teddy to clean it, that's why I said I'm sure he'll turn up. Remember when I said that?"

Rochelle, Ellis and I just stared at one another, almost totally caught off guard by the gentleness Nick was portraying with the little girl and her feelings. Rochelle was so caught off guard that she didn't even bother to go see if Luke was okay. It was totally silent, so we heard every word. Maddy just nodded with a small "Yes".

"Well here's the other part of your gift." Nick handed that box that looked little until Maddy held it. She just looked at Nick with a deep kind of observation; so deep I can't even describe how it looked unless you saw it yourself. She just looked at the box and the teddy, then softly smiled and opened the not-so-fancily wrapped present. It was a mini-gun. A mini Hunting rifle to be exact; it was small enough to fit perfectly in her small hands and look like a regular sized gun. But it wasn't put together just yet. She simply smiled and threw her little arms around the man, who surprisingly hugged her back.

"Yay! Is this because I can shoot stuff good like you!" Maddy seemed to have forgotten about the unconscious man on the ground already. How my lame gift was supposed to compare with everyone else's was anyone's guess. I mean, Nick seemed to top all of our gifts with Maddy's approval. I looked lamely at my little birthday card and the Judas Priest shirt I salvaged from a store that I had altered when she was sleeping so it'd be her size. I remembered her saying she loved Judas Priest. But I'm sure Priest wouldn't help her fend off zombies, also, Rochelle had already adorned her with her own favourite band tee. Maddy had let go of Nick because I think she remembered how he got uncomfortable real quick. He just nodded and gave possibly the biggest smile I'd ever seen on his face that wasn't provoked by violence against zombies or people he didn't like. Maddy looked back at me, and smiled a little expectantly.

"Uh...aha...here." I just handed my gift to Maddy a little sheepishly. I was sort of right; she smiled nevertheless, but it wasn't as received as Nick's gift was. I simply frowned at Nick who smirked back with a hint of smugness. It was starting to feel like a competition for Maddy's appreciation, and I didn't like how that felt.

"JUDAS!" Maddy must've realized what the shirt was and threw it over her pink shirt; which in all honesty looked **loads** better than the Depeche Mode shirt with purple pants. And a lot better with the white and blue jacket she slipped on over it. "I love it! Thanks Mom!"

"I...er..You're welcome sweetheart." I smiled, deciding against myself in correcting Maddy for the hundredth time, since it was pretty clear she knew I wasn't her mom, but she didn't care when she addressed me as such. It probably made her feel better or something.

"Okay..._now_ she looks like a messed up hillbilly city slicker." Nick gave an uncertain sort of smile that was confused as he examined Maddy's attire for a second time.

"Shut up, Nick." I smiled back with the returned smugness, feeling like I had scored another point in whatever competition was setting up for Maddy's admiration. Nick confused smile turned into an unimpressed frown, but he shook his head anyways, disregarding me.

"Hey...Mad Hatter, what was yewr wish?" Ellis chimed in to her happy moments of being treated like a little kid for the first time in ages without being expected to slice and dice former humans. Maddy looked apprehensively at the group and then to the unconscious man still on the ground.

"Um...is he okay?" Maddy pointed at Luke, who was sort of twitching unconsciously. Rochelle seemed to remember him as well and went over to make sure he was. "Uh...I don't wanna say. It won't come true if I do!"

"Who knows, it might if we know what it is." Nick decided to side with Ellis. I think it's safe to say that everyone wonders at some point what the birthday wish of the birthday person was. Maddy still looked unsure.

"You'll laugh at me..." Maddy gave a small frown of slight embarrassment.

"Oh, we promise we won't!" Rochelle smiled reassuringly at the girl, and then snapped her look at Nick. "Right?"

"Why do you always look at me like that?" Nick didn't look impressed. "I didn't do anything."

"Yet." Rochelle disregarded him after she said that and looked back at Maddy who just smiled and then said;

"I wished for a new baby sister!" Maddy smiled sheepishly, and then looked expectantly at me and Nick. Ellis burst into laughter first, and Maddy instantly recoiled and looked about ready to cry.

"Oh! Maddy...I'm not laughin' at yew...I'm laughin' at them." Ellis said in between giggles pointing at who she had looked at for her wish. Her smile returned and she made it more obvious who she was staring at for her birthday wish to come true with. I simply tried not to blush at the sheer surprise of the kid's wish. I was not expecting that.

"Maddy, uh..." Nick gave a small cough, trying not to show any embarrassment or something. "Now's not the time for, baby-making..."

"I KNEW IT!" Maddy looked as though she had a 'eureka' moment, "I knew you had to _make_ babies. Sarah was wrong."

"What d'you mean, Maddy?" I asked, a little embarrassed that Maddy would ask for something like that. "How?"

"You mean you don't know? I mean, I'm not sure but I'm pretty sure that you're supposed ta get a baby-doll in a box, you know, one you gotta build. And then you get a dog and cut out its heart and put it in the baby doll that the mommy and daddy have to put together. And then the new baby is there. But – why are you all laughing?" Maddy looked curiously at the rest of us, who were giving small snorts or chuckles as the child spoke. "you said you wouldn't laugh..."

"Uh, Heheh, we're not laughin' at ya Maddy. We're jus surprised that yew're right!" Ellis chuckled as he received a nudge from me. "Hey, gotta let a kid think."

"Yeah, then they'll end up like you, El." Nick smirked lightly, taking a sip from his second beer.

"That's...a creative way to look at it." Rochelle's eyebrows raised a little as she processed the child's views on reproduction.

"Well...how _else_ are you supposed ta look at it? Is there something I'm missing?" Maddy just looked at Rochelle, who coughed on her beer when she realized what that meant. Maddy just smiled at the woman in pink.

"You can have this one, Ro. I ain't answering that question." Nick smirked at Ro, who just glowered. Maddy looked even more insistently at Ro, who looked pleadingly at me. I just shrugged and gave a helpless smirk with a shrug.

"She asked you, girl." My smirk turned into a relieved smile when she turned her stare and looked back at the ever curious (probably for her own good) Maddy who was waiting for an answer from the lady she'd asked.

I looked outside and realized that it was dark enough to go to bed and be ready bright and early to leave our little sanctuary. Fluffy was already snoozing, and it caught me off guard since I had my suspicions about the infected being unable to sleep. I started to make our beds in one spot, since I felt the bite of the evening air through my sweater and jean jacket. Winter was headed to Canada, and fast from the feel of it.

"**EWWWWWWWW**!" Maddy screamed, I wanted to pull out my gun automatically, but realized that Rochelle was having 'the talk' with her. She asked. "Why would people **DO** that? I should've just stuck with my explanation..."

Once again, the barn was filled with laughter at the little girl's disgusted face. I bit my lip, trying not to laugh at her since she'd probably kick me in disgusted humiliation for asking. "Hey...it's getting dark out..should we go to bed soon?"

"Hold on there, sweetheart...why is all the beds beside each other?" Nick raised an eyebrow at the sleeping arrangement I had made for everyone.

"So you can sleep with me!" Maddy smiled, back to her normal cheeriness. She wandered over to the cluster of sleeping bags and blankets on top of hay and flopped in the middle of it all. She sleepily yawned and spoke her next few words. "I really had fun, even though you adults are kinda gross..."

"So nobody whines about being cold when they sleep off in the corner by on their own." I lightly teased Nick, who frowned.

"I don't whine thank you very much." Nick said in a huff. I just shrugged, knowing he wouldn't accept it if I told him he did. A lot.

I decided to help clean up a little with Ro, since the men figured they didn't need to help and shuffled off to the bed. Nick, as expected took his blanket bed thing off to the corner he was in the night before. Once everything was cleaned up, I wandered to scoot in between Ellis and Maddy. Maddy clung on to me in her sleep, and Ellis snuggled in closer too, shivering at the sudden stillness of the night, with the cold front creeping in the barn. Rochelle kind of dragged Luke to the sleeping area to join the rest of us, since he was still unconscious; I guess Nick really cared for Maddy to have that happen. Then again, he just didn't like Luke period.

... ... ...

Not too long after, Ellis crawled over me sleepily and plopped himself on Maddy's other side. And I felt a warm arm droop over my waist and a warm breath on the back of my neck. Smiling sleepily to myself, I decided to snuggle against the body behind mine. "Got cold, I see?"

"Shut up." Nick breathed sleepily into my ear before everyone actually did fall asleep. I swear I felt a kiss on the back of my head...but I could've been imagining it.

* * *

**A/N: Final-frickin-ly. I can't help but smile like a moron when I re-read this. Then I realize it can't all be honky-dory as much as I want it to be. Pretty please, review! I'd really like to know if you guys like this or not! I mean, I know Gabbi does, and I simply adore you for reviewing!~~ Ya'll make me sad since I know ya'll are reading it! Yes you people in Canada, the US, UK, New Zealand and Spain! I know you're there! **

**Also...I'm growing too attached to my characters, I think. xD **

**~Grammatica~**


	19. Bandit Blues

**A/N: This is all in **Bandit's POV**, since you guys need an update about where the other part of the group ended up. (Ahem..Valancy Summit for those who forgot) Also this makes the story move along. Herpderpduh. Anyways, as promised, there are no promises for regular updates, but I'll type my fingers to the bone trying to keep them coming as fast as I can! :D**

* * *

**Chapter Nineteen: Bandit Blues**

"If you won't comply, I'll be forced to shoot, civilian." The soldier roughly barked at me and the others. It was the others he was mad at, because we needed to get a blood sample taken from us before we got anywhere near the entrance gate that went down into the town below. Believe me, it was the most welcoming sight...well ever. It was bustling with people, and even a few cars. Though, I had a sinking feeling there would be little to no people I liked that were there. In a hurry, everyone rolled up their sleeves so the soldier could poke us with three different needles each.

Leo fainted. I don't think he was used of needles or blood being taken out of him. After the needles were through taken blood from our group, we were placed in a confinement room, where we had time to talk to each other without a soldier present for the first time in days. When we first arrived, we were basically thrown into a room with other people...some of which turned. One turned into a tank...let's just say that the army was lucky we were there. Otherwise, it was devastating, watching how swiftly the army dealt with 'carriers'; one quick gunshot to the temple of the head, regardless of age or gender.

I was beginning to doubt our safety here. Needless to say, the large amount of people we arrived with thinned out as our group sat around waiting for either good or bad news.

"We...naw I ain't gonna lie people, I think we're in for it." Coach sighed heavily, lightly holding onto Bernadette's hand. Everyone shuddered. "I jus' pray that don't happen to any of us."

"Hey Leo, did you prepare for this sort of thing?" Jason prodded at the stirring nerd. He'd been basically chucked into the room with the rest of us, since he was unconscious and all. The seriousness of where we were was sinking in, and I really just would have rather been outside of this walled in city killing and living from day to day if it meant losing any of the dorks I had grown used of. I wondered how the others were, and where they were. Leo just nodded, despite himself. He smirked deviously, despite his weak stature.

"Remember when I said I'd do blood tests and everything back in Rupert?" He quietly asked us all, which we all nodded after a moment of thinking back to that happy time. Though I'm glad we rescued Maddy, I missed the time we all spent in Prince Rupert. "well, when you were all sleeping, I took it upon myself to draw some samples and study it with what little resources we had. I found out that compared to the blood samples, regardless of the coagulation, from the infected had many discrepancies compared to the living. Obviously. For instance, once the virus has spread to every blood cell, you turn into a cannibalistic inhuman freak. But there's a certain point to where the multiplication of the virus stops and therefore you become a carrier. Now, unless you know what I'm talking about it gets more complicated than it already is."

"Kiddo, we never know what yer goin' on about." Bernie strained a smile at the young man who fumbled with his glasses that always seemed to be sliding off his face. Leo just softly smiled back, knowing he always confused us when he didn't speak in plain English.

"Well, basically, in layman's terms...blood from the living is different from the dead...quite obvious. But what I'm getting at is that if you inject a small sample of white blood cells from someone that isn't infected into the carrier sample, you have a clean sample to be taken out of you when CEDA wanted to take a sample. This way we all get in." The devious smirk was back on our beloved nerd's face. That was why he told us to inject a vile of blood into our arms. He even said to make sure they took our blood from that arm. What a guy. So, even if we were carriers, we should've been safe for now...unless we decided to cut ourselves and put the blood against someone who wasn't immune or a carrier.

"You sly pooch." Kay giggled nervously. At that moment, the soldier that had threatened us an hour or so earlier came in and gave us his report.

"Based on the blood samples taken, you guys are clean. Lucky for you." The soldier had a tone that I just didn't like. It made me feel uneasy all over again. "Based on your blood types, you will be divided up into randomly assigned groups. You will need to sign a couple of forms, and you will be assigned jobs suitable to your abilities. You may begin the forms now, and you cannot leave until you're assigned."

"You mean we can't just stick together?" Jude paled in colour, and looked back at Leo.

"What part of 'randomly assigned' do you not understand?" The soldier barked, making Jude flinch back. I wasn't so sure that I wanted the others to come to Valancy Summit after all. Too bad that they were going to anyways.

* * *

After filling out all the forms, I got torn away from my friends and dragged reluctantly down the hall, continuously referred to as an 'ungrateful little shit' and chucked into a military vehicle. I now knew that those cars I saw from the top of the walls of the city weren't for the people. It was all for the Army. I got dragged into a house that looked relatively normal, considering the circumstances. Before the soldier left, I grew a spine and decided to ask something.

"Hey, dipshit. There're others from my group...about six of them. They got left behind in Winnipeg and are probably still around that area since your pal that brought us here-" I got rudely cut off, but it wasn't like I expected anything better from these rude soldiers. I missed Jason at that point.

"There are multiple search and rescue operations underway right now, so just shut up and do what you've been told. Your housemates are inside. You best get acquainted since there will be no switching, and there will be no leaving this zone. Your job placement is just down the street." The soldier said sternly. "Speaking of which, based on your interests...rather unhealthy interests, in firearms, you will be placed in the Armoury for the collectors and army personnel."

.

Once inside the house, I took a deep breath. _Well this is home from now on._ I just wouldn't have it. There were people in there, and I wanted to cry at the normality they all had. I could've kissed them on their foreheads. But I didn't. In fact...I scowled despite myself. I found myself missing Rikki for that. She hated meeting new people. Then I was reminded about the rest of them. I missed everything about them, and there was nothing that seemed familiar in any of the other three people that sat before me, watching a movie. I looked at the movie they were watching and sighed in slight relief. It was the original 'Night of the Living Dead'. One of my favourite zombie flicks that didn't scare the holy hell out of me; in fact...it was my favourite movie to watch and giggle at when I was high as a kite.

"Well, hello there." A gruff voice addressed me. I looked at who it belonged to. It was a big guy that was as tall as Coach. He looked Hispanic or something, and he was dressed in carpenter looking overalls that covered a long-sleeve black shirt, big black boots beside his feet that were covered in dirt and a red and black plaid lumberjack jacket beside him. "Name's Nolan."

I looked at the other two; one was a woman that reminded me almost immediately of Velma from Scooby-Doo. She had big, thick-framed black glasses and a light, pale orange blazer over a red shirt. She wore a black, knee length skirt and knee high, brown nylon socks and black flats. Her thick brown hair was worn down and in a bob cut, which didn't help me think anything but "Velma..."

"What?" The lady squeaked out, surprised and trying not to look offended. I think the guy sitting beside her heard me and boomed out in laughter. I looked at him. He was dressed relatively neatly, a black blazer, a light blue dress shirt and pale gray pants that looked pressed. His hair was slicked back slightly, and I was immediately reminded of Nick. And then my group all over again. I decided to just not look at him directly. "My name is Carrie, thank you."

"My name's Steve." The guy beside 'Velma' seemed to be very cocky. Of course, you always, ALWAYS have to have a douche-bag in any group you're stuck with. Then again, they probably thought that of me too. They all looked expectantly at me. And despite myself, I scowled again.

"My name's Bandit. So...we're really just supposed to live together, even though we don't know each other?" I asked, a little more annoyed looking I think, than I felt. They just looked at me a little funny, and it bothered me. I think I suddenly understood why Nick was always so annoyed. I wanted to deck them all, even though I wanted to embrace the fact that there were other people besides the twelve I had grown so used of. It felt like...stranger anxiety...I remembered Rikki telling me about that from one of her courses at the college.

"Bandit." Carrie said flatly, looking over her glasses that had managed to slip down her face when she dropped her face to look at me with an annoying look of disbelief. "Nice...now what's your real name?"

"It is my real name! Man, I thought Velma would be less of a bitch." I couldn't help it. I just wanted to smack them all senseless and hope that in doing so, they'd all materialize into my beloved assholes, jerks and pals. I stormed upstairs and found an empty room to just sleep and hope I woke up back in hell. At least there, I was happy.

* * *

It had been two weeks since we arrived at Valancy Summit and got separated so drastically. I had heard from Jude, since I was lucky enough to land a job that required talking to a stock clerk; since the whole building I worked for had many departments and it was the only building that handled weaponry, stockpiles and other goods. She told me about the others from what she had gathered, since she got to talk to them when they came for supplies for their jobs. Coach had become a restaurant manager; Bernie was a bartender (no surprises on either of them). Jason was a plant grower, which made me giggle since I figured the only plant he knew how to grow was supposed to be illegal. And the very least surprise of news she gave me was that Leo had become a scientist's assistant, though I felt sure he would be a scientist in no time at all. I mean, for all I knew, I could be a carrier and my life was spared due to his biological nerdiness...that I was glad for in all honesty.

I felt a pang of guilt, because of my first impression on the others, we weren't getting along. I even told them I wouldn't care if they all died the next day. I also felt a pang of worry, since it was supposed to be Maddy's seventh birthday that day. I wondered if she was still alive to celebrate it, then I found myself slapping myself for such a dumb thought. The others would surely die before they let anything happen to that little sweetheart. I'd go as far to say that even _Nick_ would be capable of that. I had been lying in bed, and wondering if I would be shot for being late for work. There were too many things you could be in trouble for here, and I was finding them out day by day. I saw one of my co-workers, I think his name was Bricker...at least that's what his last name probably was...he was joking around with another co-worker of mine about becoming a zombie...well...let's just say that that kind of joking isn't tolerated with the dipshits they had working around here. I'm glad that I didn't do that to Jude, like I was going to.

I rolled out of bed and lazily started to get ready for my crappy yet not crappy job. I was mad because I had to come back here, to this unhappy household every day, day in and day out. I went downstairs and greeted the other three as peacefully as I could. Surprisingly, they greeted me back with little to no annoyance in their faces, but that was probably because we were all too sleepy to be angry with each other (mostly the other three against me) first thing in the morning.

"So how about it sport?" Steve looked at me a little cautiously, "You all done being pissed off at the world and hoping your other little pals are on their way?"

That did it. I just punched him as hard as I possibly could and stormed off to work without breakfast or a lunch packed and way too early anyways. I didn't even bother looking at the other two. So much for getting along.

I missed the others. Case closed.

* * *

**A/N: Poor Bandit!~~ I just wanna go in and hug her and tell her it'd be okay! They are most certainly on their (not-so) merry way! Any who, not too bad eh? Two chapters, one day! This is only because some dickweeds that claim to be my friends decided it was more important to ditch me after wanting to hang out...plus I have nothing else to do academically...at the moment. This is only because I literally have nothing better to do and I had a brain flash! :DDDD~ Review~Pretty~Pretty~Please~~~? :D**

**~Grammatica~**


	20. Wherefore Art Thou?

**A/N: It's here! And so soon! :D  
****So, I sincerely hope that ya'll are enjoying my creations! Please tell me if you are! :D**

**This is the starting point of well...my messed up little mind tells me not to tell you instead~~ Enjoy!**

**Also, this'll be another chapter where there will be multiple POV's...I hope that's okay for you :)**

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**Chapter Twenty: Wherefore Art Thou?**

**Leo's POV**

So, it had been two weeks since readjusting to the fact that I was placed in the blood-type O zone of the city, where we weren't allowed to leave. I had to sign a release form that basically told the people in power in Valancy Summit that I was committing myself to work for the city until I turned at least fifty, started a family with permission, or turned into a zombie. It would sound a lot more complex if I just spelled out what the contract meant. I really hoped that I wouldn't be there for the rest of my days; the city had turned out worse than I anticipated it to be. I mean, sure it was awesome to not have to be killing day in and day out, but in a way, I half missed it.

I think that was only because I missed my comrades in combat. Sure, half of us were "safe" but until the rest of the group got to the city, especially because of Maddy, my mind would not be at ease. At least Jude was around. I only got to see her when I had to pick up medical supplies for the laughably named scientists of my work department. As far as they were concerned, the Green Flu or Zontanous Nekrous Astheneia, or whatever you wanted to call it was all in the victim's head. It was all psychological to them and there was little to nothing that would change their minds about it. Unless I could show them actual proof, that was. Sadly, it's like all the actual scientists died truly trying to study this disease and left behind the people that joined this city and said they had an interest in the sciences. They laughed at a lot of my suggestions.

My housemates were simply awful. It seemed like everyone that was honest in any way was all left outside the electric walls that boarded Valancy Summit. Then again, I never had much luck making new friends...especially the sport influenced kind that believed there was such social contrives as the poorly named "Nerd". Okay, maybe I believed in that term as much as the next person, but I didn't go all out and ask to be duct taped to my bed or have the toilet flushed every time I was in the shower. Aside from all the brouhaha inside the little house that made up B thirty-five, Section O Twenty-three (my new address), there was a lot of not-so scientific minds I wanted to change.

On my way to work one day, it was awfully serene. I say awfully because when the city seemed quiet, something the previous day must have happened. It's like the military thrived off of killing actual human beings, and if they weren't yelling like lunatics at people just trying to get to work, that meant they met their quota of shooting for a little while. It was also very serene since it was a brilliantly sunny day, despite the cold and little showers of snow that melted as soon as it touched the ground.

I went to my normal spot on the highest hill in the city and took out the little radio that I had saved since the day our group had been split in half. I turned it on, and hoped that somebody would respond that day. It had been two weeks, after all. It was getting colder out during the day, and I couldn't imagine being outside after it got dark, let alone sleeping out there.

"This is Leo, if anyone can hear me...please respond." I let the familiar static take place after I spoke into the radio. The only good thing about that radio was it was solar powered, and it only connected to the other radio, which the other six had.

It was supposed to be Maddy's birthday. I may not have known her for very long, but I felt almost...empty. Just knowing that they all could be...well I didn't want to think about them that way. Not today. I tried speaking into the radio again, but I saw a person up ahead, dressed in the standard military attire. I shoved the radio quickly into my side bag and headed down the hill to my work site. There was supposed to be a special presentation for us scientists. Well, I wasn't quite a scientist yet...they called me their flunky.

.

When I arrived to the worker's lounge, I was greeted with the smugness of the other worker's there. I knew one by name, and he was a total dick that made me think of Nick or Luke. His name was Barker. That's all we addressed anyone by; the surname replaced the given name in Valancy Summit.

"So Thorton, I hear there's a meeting today?" Barker was supposed to be head of my department, and all the departments were to be present. He never paid much attention to the meetings he was involved in; he would've rather spend his time drooling and gawking at the lady across from him, I mean I don't condemn him for just that. But, she _did_ have a tendency to forget that the buttons on her blouse button _all_ the way up. Annoyed, since it was Barker's voice that broke the somewhat serenity from outside, I gave a short nod and a slight eye roll. This surprisingly went unnoticed, for once. A lady's voice came up on the intercom, as it did every day to announce daily 'discoveries' or meeting times for different sections of my department.

"All departments are to report to the main meeting room on floor level 4." This was repeated, much to anyone's annoyance, until everyone was at the place that was specified.

.

Once in the room, I realized how many scientists there really were. The room had seating for at least a hundred people, yet, barely half of the seats were filled. There was a large rectangular shaped thing that shook every so often. I had a bad feeling about this meeting.

"Welcome everyone. Today's objective is observing how the debate of this being a psychological problem or not is going to be put to rest." The man talking in front had a nametag that read Selby. He uncovered the large display in front. There were three beings in there. One was crouched over, looking pale and sick and leaning against the glass that contained her. The one beside her was clearly on the verge of dying, and the last one at the end was banging against the glass, growling and glaring at the people outside of its constraints. They were separated by glass themselves. Everyone pulled back and cringed, except for me. I must have been used of the gore and senselessness of everything happening. "Clearly, the first specimen has been bitten by a reanimate. The second one is stage three of the bite; after all the delusions and the flu like symptoms. This stage has been proved to be the most crucial point of study. The last specimen is the result of the first two."

This seemed to be too much for some people. I realised something as well; where did these people find the resources to conduct these irrational studies? There was a jolt somewhere in the back of my mind that didn't sit well with me. It seemed all to set up; from people that I worked with (for); I had gathered the story that the last time someone made a break in the case of any sort, a meeting was upheld with all departments. It seemed like they wanted to corroborate with others that were making progress in studying the virus; and those that made that progress were wiped out after the meetings, or met some unfortunate accident. I was lost in the thought of just how corrupted this city was, and my mind was flying at a thousand thoughts per second. And before I knew it, I heard three gunshots and many gasps or curse words. Snapping back to reality, I saw the three 'specimen' crouched and limp in their glass confinement, bleeding from the head.

_This is gonna be a lot worse than I ever thought. I hope the others arrive soon._

* * *

**Coach's POV**

I'm not gonna lie, the past two weeks had been absolute bliss. They say ignorance is bliss, and I think I finally understand what that means. I haven't even thought of killing any infected, or the cold front that was closing in. I'm not saying I haven't thought of the others, but it's been too long since I felt the sense of security Valancy Summit had provided for Bernie and me. I was pretty much living a surreal dream; I was the manager of a pretty good restaurant where the people that could afford it could grab a good bite. Bernadette was the bartender. Enough said.

Well, not really. There were things that bothered the hell outta me. Like how the only people that ate at the restaurant were the same people we saw every day, kind of like the town was set up to have a regular schedule for everyone. And that we weren't allowed to leave our zones of blood-type, and had to work at the same job unless something was seriously wrong with the job that imposed anything dangerous to us. Also, the fact that we had assigned living arrangements that we couldn't switch. There was always that nagging feeling that I managed to learn to ignore over the years about something being obviously wrong with a picture when it was presented.

I had made a few new friends, and gladly so. Dr Lavern Van de Pike; he was someone I knew I wanted to keep nearby for anything. Especially since Leo had told us to befriend as many people with specialized skills as we could. I don't know nothing about that kid, but what he said, you felt like you just _had_ to listen to him. I mean, he did get us all into Valancy Summit without a hitch.

Bernadette looked at me from behind her bar counter, drying off the cups and cleaning up her work area. She gave me a soft smile, and for some reason, it made me feel on top of the world, like we were gonna make it out of this part of humanity's darkest years in one piece.

There was this feeling that was in me, despite my hopes. It was something that my original group had decided some time ago; even though we were left behind faster than we could say our names, even with our many differences and disagreements we came out with one common goal, and a tight bond that grew, whether or not we could accept that bond. If one went down, we all did, there would be no one left for dead, not now or ever. Nick had said that once, and if I do say so myself, that was one of his moments proving to the rest of us that he was human after all.

I still wondered where and how the other six were. Maddy's birthday was supposed to be that day, after all. That nagging feeling of leaving the others behind wouldn't leave, as much as I wanted it to.

* * *

**Ellis' POV**

"Ya'll...ya'll I'm hurt." I cringed and held my side; that charger was one big son-of-a-bitch, almost bigger than a tank. I was limpin' on top of my ribs feelin' like they were poking my lungs. We were somewhere on the outskirts of Toronto, at least that's what Rikki and Ro figured. It'd been three weeks since that happy day in the barn house, a month since everyone had been split apart and a few days into winter, I figured. It even snowed once, but it all melted away too quickly to really count as a snowfall or anything. There was a scream as I realized Rikki wasn't with us at that moment. "Oh shit, Rik!"

"It's got meee!" She screamed and hollered in between sickenin' thuds somewhere out of sight. Those things were gettin' to be real smart, or we were just weak from lack of food and proper rest. Probably both. I looked around frantically, as did everyone else. Maddy cried. "Hellllp!"

"CHARGER!" Maddy squealed and despite her crying, managed to get the charger with one clean shot to the head with her little gun. She'd gotten real good with that thing, she'd also hung around Nick too much I think; she was also real good at rubbing it in and sarcasm. My point was proven with; "Did ya see that? You could learn from that Ellis."

"Yeah, whatever Maddy-kins." I'd decided on the spot to give her a different nick name. I dunno why. I heard Nick stiflin' a laugh from behind me.

She ran over to Rikki as fast as she could. I think we was just about at all our limits; Rikki had been getting real bad rounds of coughs with Ro and Luke, Maddy had collapsed a few times from no food, so every bit of food that we came upon went to Maddy first, and if there's somethin' left, we'd have a little bite too. Nick, well, he was just Nick, only he had lost more weight than we were comfortable to acknowledge. I dunno about myself, but I knew I probably looked as shitty as I felt.

"We got ourselves a safe house!" Luke managed to cry out, pointing at a small shop that looked like a local grocer. I think everyone else noticed that too, 'cause we all ran, despite how weak we all must've been. Just in time too, 'cause it's like zombies have a knack for finding us just before we get into a safe house. Maddy had fun using Nick's magnum to shoot from the safety of the safe room. Fluffy had another use, when he roared, on rare occasion mind you, the zombies cleared off for awhile. When it was quiet, and everyone was hurt and sick, there wasn't a whole lot to talk about. Just a lot of time to sit and wonder 'bout everything and anything; like how was Kay?

.

"Ellis, you sure you're alright?" Rikki was using butterfly bandaids to close up the wound on my side. I must've fell asleep or somethin'. Good thing I did too, she'd just finished up cleaning out the wound, since we ran out of painkillers some time ago. I kinda grunted to reply, since my throat was dry and coarse. "You've lost a lot of blood...you sure?"

"I'm _fine_ Rik...what about you? That charger got you pretty good..." I tried to sit up and examine her. Something about women, man, you just feel... I dunno, compelled to protect them. She simply pushed me back down. I think she meant well, but it kinda hurt. "Ouch, Jesus woman..."

"I'm fine, El. You should rest; you're lucky that hunter didn't run off with your organs." She might not have thought I saw it, but she was wincing with every few movements she made. She carefully leaned against the wall, close by me and rested her head on her knees. I decided to talk, since there was nothin' better to do.

"You think they're okay, Rikki?" I asked kinda softly, since I didn't want to have Maddy included in this conversation. She was cuddled up against Fluffy, since he was always running a high fever and it kept her warm. She lifted her head to meet my eyes. She looked real worn out, and she dropped more weight than a muscle-builder in a weight competition. Y'know when they go and drop the barbell or whatever after they'd shown everyone they could do it? Her once nice clothes had been ratted down and became thin and torn. She was silent in thought I guess.

"I...I really hope so. I mean, every pilot we get seems to be trained to crash instead of fly." She had a slight waver in her voice, like she believed the negative point of view more than the positive. I didn't like that one bit. "I mean, it's been-"

"Hold it there, Rik. Yew don' really believe that, do ya?" I think I was getting defensive over the unknown because Kay was in that helicopter. She probably thought I was dead anyways, so I think I just irked Rikki without meaning to. She just stared, a small frown on her mouth, like she was arguin' with herself before she answered. Now, normally, when she did that, she got mad out of lack of food and sleep. "I mean, _obviously_ they've gotta be okay...they'd find their way back to us if it weren't."

"Yeah...probably." Rikki was clearly depressed, and I didn't know a damn thing about helping that, since in all honesty, I didn't know much about her other than her fling with Nick that one time. And the other time when they thought no one knew 'bout their kissin' times. Again, my mind went back to Kay.

"Hell yeah, yew mean." I did my best to keep the spirits up, even if I wasn't feeling too hot. I guess you could say it helped me feel better, almost. I sat up anyways, Rikki wasn' lookin' anyhow. Her shoulder looked funny, like outta place almost. Instinctively, I touched it, which earned a mighty growl and glare as she pulled back with a curse word. "Ya sure yew're _fine_?"

"Ellis, just don't, I'll be okay." Rikki looked a little sorry about her temper flare, but she scooted over anyways and leaned against the wall with such determination that I almost cringed when I heard a soft 'crack' that had her whimper for a second. "Ouch...shit, hurt more than I thought it would."

"Rik!" I sighed, wishing she'd just ask for help. She definitely spent too much time 'round Nick. I think. Maybe that was just her when she was outta her comfort zone. "yew could'a asked ya know..."

"Oh don't bother, it's done already..." She was tired and cranky. At least she noticed she was. "I need sleep..."

"S'colder than normal...you can snooze here if ya like..." I had one of two blankets in the safe house; Maddy was with Fluffy and was toasty, she said anyways, and Ro and Luke were sharing the sleeping bag. Nick was being stubborn and decided to keep watch (more like sleep) in front of the safe room door. I still had the blanket draped 'round me, so I opened up my arms to invite her to what little warmth I could provide. Nick would've probably finished off my nose if he was awake.

"Uh..." Rikki looked like she was gonna say no, but her shivering spoke otherwise. She scooted over and sat herself under my left arm. I just draped the blanket over her and dropped my arm to my side. She rested her head on my shoulder and sighed a little. "Thanks El...it is pretty fucking cold out now."

"Ain't ya Canadian? Like...I mean, aren't ya'll supposed to be able to stand this cold or whatever?" I asked, poking some fun anyways. I felt her yawn and then look up at me with an unimpressed look in her eyes, but a little smile anyways.

"Shut up...Being Canadian doesn't help me withstand winter nights, without more than a blanket and thin summer clothes..." She told me to shut up and all, but I think I was all in good will, since she smiled a little more. A more thoughtful look crossed her face as she sighed again. "You're so positive El, how do you do it?"

"I dunno, guess I was jus' born that way." I shrugged. I always tried finding the reason why I always just _had_ to look at the brighter side of things, but always came up short. "How come yew always look at the downside of things?"

She shrugged, opened her mouth but the decided against it. When she spoke again, it was a little more clear 'bout what was buggin' her. "I don't _always_ do that, do I?"

"Well, sometimes ya do more than ya think, I guess..." I shrugged. I was sure sore all over. Rikki was quiet for another moment.

"Do you think, like _truly_ think they're somewhere safe?" Rikki's eyes met mine again, and I just stared for a couple of minutes, wondering what I should say. Mostly because I think I just wanted to believe that and not bother thinking very logically about it. I think Rikki took my silence wrong...women, I will never understand their emotions for the life of me. Her eyes dropped and she looked away with such a speed that I knew she thought I didn't think Kay and the others were safe. Then it hit me; she must've been worried about Bandit!

"Well, they are with that kid sister of yours. She's a little maniac, ya know that?" I decided to reason, if not just to feel a little bit better. I heard a small giggle, but it sounded like it was trying to cover tears. Rikki wouldn't let me look at her. "S'okay ta cry...Ellis ain't gonna judge ya."

"I know she's crazy, but..." Rikki just glanced up, I was right again; her eyes were brimmed with tears that weren't falling quite yet. That's another thing about women, why do they always look so pretty when they're in their saddest state? "No, you're probably right, El...I bet they're somewhere nearby... we just gotta find them, right?"

"Right!" I smiled, happy that I could make her look at a brighter side. My stomach decided that'd be a great time to talk, I think Rikki even heard it, she got all surprised and stuff looking for a noise she heard."I bet they're eating good food too, those bastards..."

Rikki laughed a little, and then looked down at her own disappearing stomach. "Probably...You're really missing Kay, aren't you?"

"Well _duh_...what gave that away?" I smiled despite how I felt when she said that. I'm sure I saw Nick outta the corner of my eye peeking out from around the corner. I decided to scoot over a little from Rikki, because as much as I liked being 'round her, it was always dangerous to be a little too close to a buddy's girl, even if he didn't out right say she was his. And that's exactly what Rikki was I think; whether they liked it or not, they seemed to be drawn to one 'nother no matter what. I heard a scowl, definitely Nick. "Ya know, I think yew're worried 'bout Maddy, too, top of missin' yewr sister."

"Yeah, what gave _that_ away?" Rikki chuckled a little, and readjusted herself and closed the space I tried to make to keep me safe from Nick. I didn't mind none though, I was pretty cold still. Nick probably was too. It was silent for a couple of minutes. "Where do you think we should go?"

I was a little caught off guard when I heard her talk, since I was lost in thought about Kay, again. I was kind of remembering that night when me and Kay decided to date...it was a long talk really, and while still on that rooftop in BC with everyone else 'sides Nick and Rikki, Kay had asked me "where do you think we should go?". She wanted to talk in private since it was pretty new to consider dating someone ten years younger than me. Everyone had teased because that's the only part they heard, but I was happy to be talking to Kay at all. I mean, she was just about the prettiest thing I'd ever seen since that epic race Jimmy Gibbs had won, despite his engine being on fire. That was one cool race. Clean up must've been a pain though. "Huh?"

"Well, we're in Ontario finally, which way do you think Leo would have us go?" Rikki seemed to be having a hard time getting comfy on my shoulder, so despite myself, I put an arm around her shoulders. It worked at least.

"Hm...I think he'd probably have us go to the capital or something smart like that." I tried to recall what he had been telling me, since he always decided to spill his plans on me when the girls wouldn't listen to his babblin'. Now that I thought 'bout it, I wished I knew what the hell he was goin' on 'bout. "Or maybe some place near there..."

"Yeah, I think I remember him saying something about that." Rikki agreed, even though I might've been wrong. "I think I'm gonna try get some sleep...and El?"

"Hmm?" I was kind of already dozing off at the warmth Rikki was providing.

"Thanks for the talk..." Rikki yawned and then I heard her light breathing take over.

"Wow, Ellis. Didn't think you had it in ya you son-of-a-bitch you..." I heard Nick's annoyed voice and yawn through my sleepiness. I think he was too tired to deal with it though; he kind of just sat on the other side of Rikki and took some blanket for himself. And shoved my arm off of Rikki so he could place her head on his shoulder. I didn't mind none. I just went to sleep, thinking about when I'd get to see my own pretty little angel.

* * *

**A/N: Daawwwwwweh...I think they're all missing each other. Never fear! Grammatica's here!~**

**Anywhoooo, tell me your thoughts, inbox me anything you'd like to know or (possibly) see in this story! **

**~Grammatica~**


	21. Tis the Season

**A/N: Holy crap, I'm really getting a move on, eh? This'll only get more fun for me to write, since I really am totally into the whole Bilderburg/Illuminati/New World Order shit. I don't imply that this'll be how they wield their power in any way, but it sure is fun to write about stuff like this. Also, this is back to normal point of view, meaning Rikki. **

**Also, YAY FOR FANFICTION, although this is clearly not in any particular form for my University level English, it did prepare me to be able to write loooooonnng articles and essays without much complaint. No, scratch that, I complain about my work. A lot. But at least the work doesn't feel much like work when I have to be honest about it. :D**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-One: Tis the Season**

This wasn't my best moment of the month; I woke up freezing cold and feeling the effects of the freezing weather. I felt so sick that I didn't even bother trying to make it to the bathroom of the safe house we were barricaded in; I just kind of sat up, turned away from the sleeping group and started to puke my guts out. That's all I think I had to puke out, since we were basically surviving off of water and granola bars. It had been weeks and it was getting icy and cold. We were just on the outskirts of Toronto and our plan was to see what places still had power, and internet and try get in contact with Leo or anyone else. And the rest of the plan was to get a mode of transport, like an RV or anything. We still weren't sure what to do about Fluffy; he had seen us through our worst and was sort of becoming like a pet that you worry for, even if you're not very fond of it. He was also awesome to have around when the crowds of zombies got too thick, and he'd do just about anything to protect Maddy.

"Rikki?" I heard Ro's voice and felt her hand lightly rested on my back; it was like she was being cautious of me. This was the second time I had felt like this, and I was worrying _myself_, since I was instantly reminded of my parents getting this sick before they turned. I pushed that feeling down and replaced it with more vomit. I seriously don't know where it was all coming from. "You okay, girl?"

"I think so..." I tried my best to give a little white lie, but lately, it was hard to cover up anything since I was feeling too weak to do much besides fight for my life. It was a sick cycle; feel like you're dying, fight dead people that kick the crap out of you at the same time, feel like you should be dead. Repeat. I wiped my mouth, and glanced up at Ro. She was still worried. "Really Ro, I'm fine."

"Mhmm, that's what they all say..." Ro trailed off and sat back, looking at me as if she were waiting for a reason to take out her gun. But she also looked like she was trying not to look like she was expecting the worst. "I found a phone...it still kind of works. There's just no reception. But it's December twentieth."

Ellis heard this through his sleepy awakenings and sat pin-straight up with his bed head. "You're shittin' me!"

For the last few weeks, Ellis was supposed to be relatively quiet so his nose could heal up with little to no problem...but despite his ever talkativeness, his nose healed up just fine. How, with all those zombies hitting him from every angle possible is beyond me. Rochelle just smiled a little at Ellis' enthusiasm. "No, I ain't shitting you."

"Hey Nick," Luke and Nick were trying to be on talking terms, since before we got into the safe house that we were in Nick had been taken by a smoker, and Luke was the only one that really noticed since he couldn't exactly yell out for help. Nick had been annoyed with me since. "You're girlfriend's puking up a storm here."

So much for talking terms. The guy was a dick, but still, he had his moments. I think. Nick was putting out the fire in the fireplace and was in the process of waking up Maddy and Fluffy. We were always trying to be on the move, since we didn't want to have to deal with winter much longer. I think me and Nick had both given up trying to get the others to shut up with the whole 'your boyfriend' or 'your girlfriend' stuff. It just made them say it more.

"Your point being?" Nick simply snapped; clearly someone didn't have a good sleep. Maddy was stretching herself and yawning while Nick was getting her dressed into her snow gear we had found in the upstairs of the house we were in. It was a nice, well lit home just outside of the city. What wasn't nice was the upstairs living room, where yet another family was not living in. It felt wrong, but we needed the clothes, so we rummaged through the rooms until we found better clothes suited for winter. I think Ellis still wore his normal clothes under the ones he found. I don't think he'd ever get rid of that Bull Shifter's shirt. No matter the smell.

"It's making some of us a little worried." Luke was sitting on the couch, examining me as I gathered myself together, simply glowering at him. What I got from that was that he was worried for himself, and that I was turning for sure.

"Shut up." I said, not as surprised that it was in unison with Nick. That happened a lot. "I'm just under the weather; I mean...I _have_ been running around in the cold with summer clothes on."

"So have we." Luke shrugged, still eyeing me with a look that told me he didn't trust me any more than he normally did. "And you don't see us puking up nothing."

"Because I wouldn't look if you were. Seriously dude, just shut up. It was better when you weren't talking." I snapped. I hadn't been sleeping well at all, and an empty stomach is nothing to test with sarcasm, even if I did do it myself. He raised a brow and looked at Rochelle to see if she had the same thoughts as he did. She just shrugged and had this look of pleading, like she wanted him to stop bugging me. I heard Nick snort, but cover it up with a cough. I think he was happy someone finally agreed with his opinion of Luke.

"I don't think ya'll understand what this means! If we don't get to this place we're going to, we're gonna miss Christmas!" Ellis looked mortified, and that made Maddy look similar, since she was listening to everything that was being said, now that she was fully awake.

"No we're not..." I spoke weakly; I really needed to find _anything_ to eat. I was starting to feel really faint. I think Ro noticed.

"Girl? You sure you're okay?" Rochelle just tilted her head and stared at me, as if trying to gauge something. I don't know, but I felt kind of scared; did I just travel across the country to turn into a zombie? That would freaking suck, I'll tell you that. At that moment of thought, I remembered that we were in a grocery store, so I ignored Ro's question and went to go further into the place, a machete in hand. I think she got the gist of what I was doing and followed. "You must be starved...I mean, I don't think anyone could find you if you turned sideways."

"Thanks." I spoke flatly; I knew my annoyance would go away once I had something in my stomach. I looked around at the mostly empty shelves, but there were bags of chips, boxes of Pop Tarts and galleons of cola just being bored on the shelves in no particular order. I grabbed some Pop Tarts, and a can of pop and turned to Rochelle. "Thank God for junk food."

"Mhmm! Man, I haven't seen this much food in weeks!" Rochelle happily stocked up on the junk food and brought it back to where everyone had made a make-shift camp. "Breakfast!"

"Not much, but it's food at least!" Ellis smiled, grabbing a bag called Lay's Ketchup chips. He stared intently at it, as if he didn't believe it was real. "What's this?"

"...Ketchup chips? Y'know, chips that taste like ketchup, more or less..." I spoke quietly and a little bemusedly; I'd forgotten that Ketchup chips were a more...Canadian cuisine for junk food. "They're good, try 'em."

"Well, if Canadians eat 'em, I guess I could try..." Ellis shrugged and ripped open the bag, taking in the smell at the same time. He took out a single chip and examined it before crunching on it. His eyes lit up and he grabbed out a handful. "Man! These are _amazing_! Why don't America sell this kind of stuff? I mean, mmh!"

"I wouldn't go as far as 'amazing'..." I commented, but Ellis just looked at me with a look that asked if I was crazy for saying that. He looked sort of like a chipmunk shoving all those chips into his mouth with such a hurry, like they were the last bag on Earth. Actually, they might've been for all we knew. After everyone had something in there stomachs and had a stomach ache from junk-food overload, we headed out of the grocery store.

Maddy was looking through the scope of her little hunting rifle and talking to Nick, Rochelle, Ellis and Fluffy. How she did that all at the same time, I'd never know. Her chattering ended when she looked back at me and yelled, "I see a sign that says; 'Welcome to Toronto'!"

I checked through her scope to confirm it. We'd been walking along the highway, and there wasn't a single zombie in sight. I felt that would be over as soon as we got into town. "Any plans?"

.. .. ..

So our _brilliant _idea was that we were gonna go into town, find a laptop and message Leo or anyone that could possibly message us back. And hopefully find ourselves a vehicle to get us to wherever we had to go. Hopefully, the group was some place that had computers. We were at the outskirts of town, but chickened out at the sight of the streets that were simply **filled **with zombies mindlessly wandering about. I'd forgotten to mention that Toronto was humongous in comparison to Vancouver.

So we ended up in a hotel, about three floors up. I think it was one of those more fancy hotels that only super rich people could afford. That's why we chose to stay in it. That and there was still electricity running.

.

Ellis was making pipe bombs, which is why we chose to be on an upper level of the hotel. Nick and Luke were extracting bile from a recently more deceased boomer that didn't explode; and putting it into jars. Rochelle and I were scrounging around for supplies and first aid stuff.

We hit the jackpot.

There was a walk-in freezer in the kitchen of the hotel that was completely filled with frozen steaks, TV dinners, frozen veggies, ice-cream, cold liquor. All kinds of things six people couldn't possibly use over night. There was a sign that told us to just take what we need. Only what we need. We took out a few things and got to cooking them so we could surprise the others. Fluffy was guarding Maddy in the main room we had all decided to bunk in; I'm pretty sure she was watching TV. Once we were done cooking, we took the elevator up with a trolley of food. Nobody had to be called for dinner; everyone smelled the food and immediately came to the source of the smell; like zombies chasing bile bombs.

"Holy shit, tis the season." Ellis smiled as he helped himself to a steak and TV dinner before plopping himself in front of the TV with Maddy and Fluffy. Nick and Luke smelled awful while helping themselves to some dinner; Luke had blown up the boomer while arguing with Nick about something.

After dinner, I felt awful. So I slipped away from the main room, to the room it was connected to, and locked myself away in the bathroom. I tried to puke, but nothing wanted to come up, so I opted to wash my face with cool water. Then I remembered there was a running shower and bath. So I had a nice long, hot bath. It helped for awhile until I got all dressed and puked my guts out into the toilet. _Then_ I felt a lot better.

.

Rochelle had heard me; she was standing outside the door of the bathroom waiting for me.

"I'm okay Ro; it's probably just the flu." I muttered, trying to just walk by her. She grabbed my arm and turned me to face her.

"For a week? Most people puke for a few days and then cool it and get better." Rochelle just stared at me with a strange look. I looked away and went back into the room, where I heard an argument brewing.

.

"Ellis, she's been like this for the past week. We can't keep her around forever if she keeps this up. She'll get us all infected too!" Luke was starting to give off hints that he wanted to yell. I peeked in through the doorway; Maddy fell asleep in the single bed, Nick wasn't anywhere to be seen and Ellis had his arms crossed with a look that didn't suit him, anger. Luke's back was turned, but he had his pistol out in his right hand.

"Yeah, well that don't mean you can just up and shoot 'er, now does it?" Ellis growled at Luke.

"Well would you rather see her turn into a zombie?" Luke snapped right back, cocking his pistol.

"Stop that. **Nobody** is gonna shoot 'er, you got that?" Ellis' eyes narrowed as he reached for the gun to try snatching it away. But Luke simply lifted it out of his reach. "You got no right, man!"

Rochelle grabbed my hand and looked directly at me with all the seriousness she could muster. "How long has it been since you and Nick went together?"

"What?" I sputtered out, feeling extremely on the spot. "How-...?"

"Don't kid yourself, girl...we all knew." Rochelle just kind of winked with a small smile that hinted across her face. Feeling more embarrassed than I wanted to feel, I just tried to focus on her question, with a sinking feeling about what she was getting at. Mentally calculating the weeks, I came up with an answer.

"I don't know, about seven or eight weeks, give or take?" I barely even whispered this, feeling extremely faint. I had to sit down on the bed or I'd fall over. "You don't think..."

"Only one way to find out..." Rochelle went to the window to take a look around at what was around the hotel. She spotted something. "Perfect. Come on, we probably shouldn't tell those men we're heading out."

.. ... ..

We were headed to a pharmacy that was across the street, sneaking across with little to no sound since we didn't wanna be spotted by the crowd of zombies that were just down the street in waiting. The doors were already opened, so we knew there weren't any alarms.

Once inside, we got to looking around. It wasn't that hard to find for Rochelle. She came back to me and passed three boxes labelled Clear Blue. I wanted to puke again, but this time out of fear. "Rochelle, I don't know..."

"Until you try." She finished my sentence in a way I wouldn't have. She led me to a bathroom in the back of the pharmacy and entered with me. At least I wouldn't be alone. I was staring at her, and it must of looked questioning when Ro looked back from opening the boxes and making sure nothing was wrong with it. "What? I've had a lot of friends that had this scare. Me once, out of paranoia."

She handed me the first stick.

.. ... ..

"**FUCK!**" I stared at the three tests in front of me, with the little smiley faces laughing at my misfortune. It also said 'seven to eight weeks' underneath each damned smiley face. "Rochelle..."

"Aw hell...I knew it was more than the flu." Rochelle bit her lip, staring at me with a look of pity from what I was staring at. I slumped against the wall and slid down. "Girl, it's called a condom."

"Hey. I'm not dumb." I snapped back, "of course we used one..."

"Well, there's probably other ways it could've happened..." Rochelle looked at me uncertainly, and then at her feet when I looked back up at her. I felt put even more on the spot.

"What're you trying to say, Ro?" I asked, feeling a frown spread across my face.

"Well, Luke _did _have his eye on you, same with Ellis for awhile..." I wanted to just slap her, but I knew she was just being honest with herself. But still, I was mad that she even thought that.

"That's what you think of me?" I was more exasperated than I thought; I could hear myself talk over my racing heartbeat. Rochelle quickly looked back at me and shook her head vigorously with a look of disappointment, probably in herself.

"No! Of course not! It was just...I'm sorry Rikki. I didn't mean that." Rochelle looked sincere at least. "Still, there are other stupid ways it could happen...like did you sleep with him or go to your own room?"

I remained quiet. I didn't want to talk about that day any more than I had to. I would've preferred to just never talk about it, but she and probably the others already knew about it. I just really didn't want to talk. "Can we just go back now?"

"Of course." Rochelle pulled me to my feet and we left, but before we did, Rochelle grabbed two things. I kind of chuckled at her; she grabbed a box of condoms and feminine hygiene products. She looked back with a look that said 'sorry' for some reason, then I remembered again. She tucked them away in her health kit she had. "Hey...I was just thinking...You haven't been eating right, sleeping well, and you had those beers back at Maddy's birthday. Maybe...maybe you'll just lose it."

"Yeah...maybe." I would've killed for a smoke at that moment, but obviously, I couldn't have one. We were walking back across the street; the zombies were completely thinned out, when we heard his voice.

"Hey ladies, what were you doing?" Nick looked down from the third floor balcony with a grin. I wanted to just run away. Rochelle took out her box of tampons and shook them at Nick so he could see. Nick's smile dropped and was replaced with a frown. "Ew...thanks for that Ro..."

"No problem." Rochelle smiled up. "We'll be right up."

.. ... ..

Ro and Luke had claimed the room over, Nick was putting up dark sheets on the windows so the zombies wouldn't see we were there, and me and Ellis were playing the N64 he'd found underneath the TV. Super Smash Bros, to be exact. Maddy was still sleeping and it was starting to get late.

"Think we should go to bed soon, ya'll?" Ellis was getting frustrated that Link kept hitting him off the level with a baseball bat. I was getting bored of being Link with a Home Run bat. We'd decided it would be awesome to have ninety-nine lives and no time limit. We were still in our forties life wise and it was getting to be real boring.

"Probably, just because _**some of us won't be getting any sleep**_, doesn't mean we shouldn't." Nick yelled part of his sentence to the room over and flopped backwards on the bed me and Ellis were sitting on. "El, where're you sleeping?"

"Well I was thinkin' I was gonna sleep here." Ellis gave a half smirk at the conman, and sprawled backwards too. I shut off the game and turned off everything but one lamp.

"To hell you are!" Nick half-laughed as he kicked Ellis off the bed; he landed on the floor with a soft thud. "It's a hotel, there's lots of room."

"Nick, it took a half a day to get it warm in the two rooms we got." I wasn't very pleased to be in the same room with him, let alone the same bed. Besides, I'd rather have Ellis around at least, in that case. For some reason, even with the electricity, the heaters did not work. "El, you can sleep on the other side of me, it's a king-size after all. And don't start Nick or I'll just go sleep with Maddy and you two can share the bed."

Nick closed his mouth and turned away from me, stealing half of the blankets at the same time. I scooted to the middle of the bed and Ellis lay on almost the edge, grabbing the blankets Nick had and pulling them over us.

"Well this sure is gonna be comfy..." Ellis yawned, I think he was trying to be sarcastic, but he fell asleep when he started to talk and started to snore instead. I just lay there, staring at the ceiling and praying I wouldn't have to deal with Nick right away.

_What am I going to say?_ I fell into a deep darkness that didn't feel like sleep, drifting between consciousness and slumber. Then suddenly, I was walking down a street. I think I saw people I recognized, but I couldn't yell at them to wait up, nor could I catch up to them. I kept trying until I woke up.

.. .. .. .. ..

My head was in the toilet again, when I was fully awake, I thought it was a dream until I realized I couldn't stop. Everyone was asleep, or so I thought.

"I knew it. Jesus, you're turning faster than I thought." Luke was standing at the door of the bathroom, his gun in hand. I heard the shower running in the next room over. Ellis had sleepily woken up and was headed to the bathroom rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Luke!" I started to wipe my mouth, but felt another wave of nausea take over. I heard the shower stop, the door open between the rooms and saw a dripping wet Rochelle wrapped in a towel out of the corner of my eye.

"Luke, just what in the hell are you doing?" Rochelle tried to grab the gun, but Luke didn't let her.

"What's got to be done." He said flatly, looking directly at me with the gun pointed. I felt what little colour I had left drain from my face. Ellis came up and pushed Luke from behind and Rochelle jumped in front of me. There was a loud 'BANG', so I flinched, feeling a ringing in my ears. I felt a warm liquid drop from the side of my head.

"Stop it you idiot!" Rochelle had slapped Luke on top of the gun shot. He'd missed everything and grazed the side of my head, hitting the wall behind me. Luke just stared at her, and took another aim at my head. I just stared down the barrel and looked up at him.

"You would all rather see her turn?" He stared at the other two; the gun shot had woken Maddy up and made her cry. It also woke up Nick. He was behind Luke in a flash, striking his side to wind him. Luke spun around and faced an angry Ellis _and_ Nick, who took turns punching him until Luke smacked them with his gun, turned around and tried to shoot at me again until Ro stood directly in front of his gun. "Rochelle, sweetie, get out of the way."

Nick and Ellis were lying on the ground, dazed but trying to get up again. Rochelle flatly spoke back. "I won't."

"Rochelle..." Luke was still pointing the gun, "Why not?"

"Because she's still a human, ya idiot!" Ellis was holding his nose again, which was bleeding, and Nick had a gash across his cheek. They were standing back up, and yelling at Luke. This was all turning into a bad dream. So much for not telling anyone. It all ended with Luke trying to aim at me, amidst all the yelling and Maddy's crying and Rochelle screaming over them all;

"You can't shoot her because **she's PREGNANT**!" Rochelle looked back at me, with the most apologetic expression. It couldn't be helped, I'd rather them all know then end up with a bullet in my head for nothing. Everyone stopped moving and went silent, except for Maddy's whimpering.

"Holy shit..." Ellis just went silent again. Nick stared at me with such a look; it was genuine surprise mixed with both anger and disbelief. Luke dropped his gun like it was acid. I couldn't stand it all and left the room.

* * *

**A/N: Ellis stole the words, I think. What a twist! :D**

**So, what do ya'll think'll happen next? :O**

**~Grammatica~**


	22. Jolly Old St Nicolas

**A/N: Weeeeee~ I'm really getting started now! :DDDDD**

**AHHH~~ Also, in case you're wondering, they were in a **_**local**_** grocery store, and there was an upstairs that had a sort of apartment living quarters. I'm just too lazy to fix it so you get how my stupid mind works. =[~~**

**Enjoy, review, repeat! :D**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Two: Jolly Old St Nicolas**

**Nick's POV**

God fucking damn it. Of course that had to happen when I was planning on telling her that I cared for her more than she thought, of course.

What the hell was I supposed to _do_ in that kind of situation? Now the 'old me', I say that because judging how I'd grown used of people around me twenty-four seven for the past three years I think it'd be about right to call them my friends by then. Anyhow, the _old me_ was screaming and kicking at me to just up and leave to start over somewhere else, like I did every time my job was done or I'd fucked up somehow. That happened to be a lot; the leaving part, not fucking up.

This time though, I'd gotten that news that I screwed up _before_ I had an actual chance to leave. And then there's the part that I broke all my rules for surviving and changed them up to accommodate the people I had around me. In short, I think I cared too much to _actually_ leave. I felt like the rope in a tug of war battle; go or leave, tell her or don't.

I flopped backwards on the bed and held my bleeding cheek.

I really should've just talked to her, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I don't know _why _I assumed it wasn't my kid. But then again, who else would she have been with. My mind kept drifting off to Ellis; he was getting pretty close to her and the way they smiled at each other...the problem with that theory was that he pretty dead set on Kay. Actually, I hadn't seen the kid so wound up over a girl, not even Zoey. Then I thought back to how Luke tried to get Rikki's 'attention' back at the pool hall. But she looked at him with a little more than disgust when I told him we weren't a couple.

I had a habit of doing that shit to women; to just assume they were unfaithful, even if I didn't out right say there was anything between us. I mean, I've had my share of marriage...and only out of paranoia of that woman being unfaithful to me, I one upped her by not coming home some nights. I don't even know if I cared about that woman. I don't even know if I cared about the one my mind was scrambling to find an explanation on how she got pregnant.

I leveraged what could happen both ways; I leave and never find that damned, mythical safe zone and probably end up dying from that cold –scratch that– **beyond freezing **Canadian winter and _maybe_ a hint of loneliness...or...decide to give a shit for one, grow a pair and just tell her my predicament about feelings. Speaking of feelings, I guess I probably should account for how _she_ felt; after all _I_ wasn't the one having the kid.

I didn't want to talk to anyone, so obviously that meant Ellis' voice breaking my dismal train of thought was inevitable.

"Hey, Nick…" Ellis voice was soft; I guess he was hoping the others wouldn't hear him even though it was dead silent in the hotel rooms. Or he was being concerned for me, one or the other. Rochelle went to go try seeing if Rikki was okay after she'd cooed Maddy back to sleep. "Nick, you okay buddy?"

"Peachy-fucking-keen, El." I looked over to the southerner with a half-hearted glare. Then I felt a pang of guilt, which I hated myself for, the moment I felt it; I hardly ever felt the feeling of guilt for anything I did. Sure I felt guilty for killing three people, who in their right mind wouldn't? But for glaring at a person I didn't particularly want to talk to of **all** live people available and then feeling bad that he flinched back and looked away from me and feeling a little guilty about it? I couldn't help but wonder what the fuck had happened to me. Ellis didn't let me wonder very long.

"Well, ya don't look it." Ellis grumbled and took a seat on the other side of the bed. His nose had stopped bleeding, but I could tell it still must've hurt since Ellis' accent was more than very obvious. He chucked a first-aid kit at me. "Ya better fix yer face up, yewr lookin' uglier than normal."

"Gee, thanks." I ignored the first-aid for awhile and just stared at the ceiling. I remembered what Rikki had said one time; something about only being able to talk civilized when no one else was around. She was right about that; there were many sleepless nights for the past years that I spent just talking to Ellis or Ro, hell even Coach. No asshole remarks whatsoever, I swear. I looked over at Maddy; her little features were softened despite the tear marks and puffy eyes she received after that asshole almost shot Rikki. I looked back at Ellis, who looked like he just wanted to leave since I wasn't talking. "Hey kid…"

Ellis looked back at me with an unsure, crooked smile. "Is this how ya always deal with this kinda news when ya get it?"

"No." I rolled my eyes, "And I don't _always_ get this kind of news, what kind of guy do you think I am?"

"A mean one." Ellis' smile turned into a nervous one, "I mean, yew should be in _there_ tryin' ta comfort the poor girl, 'stead yewr in here making me feel bad for tryin' to care 'bout one of my pals."

"Hey Ellis, how would _you_ react if you heard you got a girl you didn't really like _pregnant_?" I wasn't trying to sound like an asshole, but maybe that's just how I was made. I sat up and opened the first-aid kit and grabbed a few things to clean out the gash on my face. Ellis looked at me with an unconvinced expression.

"Nick, I don't think yewr tellin' yerself the truth. I ain't answerin' that question because I think yew _do_ care for Rikki… a lot." Ellis had a look that told me he was serious. "But if I _had_ ta answer, I'd probably try ta make things work and see if she's okay."

Once the gash was closed up, I gave my neck a crack and stood up. "Well good for you, El. I'll get right on that."

"Really?" Ellis looked genuinely surprised; he probably thought his talk got through to me, and honestly, it sort of did. I just needed to clear my mind first.

"No, but–" Ellis' surprise disappeared and was replaced by an eye-roll. Ignoring that, I continued, "I'll be right back...'kay, buddy?"

I didn't give him time to answer; I walked out of the room, down the hall and down the stairs to find myself in the main lobby. I had a hunting rifle slung on my back and my trusty Desert Eagle in my holster. Don't chastise me, you can't say you haven't went for a walk to clear your mind instead of trying to make things right straight away. I wasn't so sure about going outside, since there was a welcoming committee of a few thousand dead people waiting around out there.

I saw a backpack just lying by the front desk, beside a corpse that looked a few weeks old. Deciding it couldn't hurt, I took a look through the bag's contents; a few shirts and pants, lighters and, thank God, a box a cigarettes. There was even a joint tucked away in that box. Smiling, I decided to move along and wander around in the halls of the hotel with my new companions, maybe grab a cup of coffee.

* * *

**Rikki's POV**

That was **not** how I wanted everyone to find out. Obviously Nick didn't want to have to deal with this sort of situation, and even if he was presented the same kind in the past, he probably never dealt with it then. Rochelle had kicked out Luke, why he followed after me when I left the room was anyone's guess.

"I'm really sorry it had to get out like that, Rikki." Rochelle smiled apologetically at me from the end of the king size bed that she shared with Luke. Ew. Despite that thought, I was sitting at the head of the bed, in my comfort position with my knees pulled up to my chin and not looking at anything in particular. "You know…well…I don't really know what to say."

"You said you had friends that you had to comfort like me before, right?" I mumbled through my knees at the woman in pink at the edge of the bed. She looked back at me with the same smile she had while apologizing.

"Before the apocalypse yeah, and they all had a nice and understanding boyfriend on top of that." Rochelle had a small frown at the last part. "I'm sorry, Rikki, I shouldn't have said that."

"No, you're right. What the hell is supposed to happen now?" It felt like those words barely came out as a whisper and Rochelle just gave a small shrug with an expression that looked like she was trying to find an answer to that herself. "Whatever, I think we should still focus on how we're gonna reach the others."

At that moment, Ellis wandered into the room. "Well...uh...Hi, I mean..."

Rochelle looked behind Ellis, like she was expecting to see Nick trailing along after him. "He left, didn't he?"

"Uh...er...well he said he'd be right back!" Ellis' face scrunched into something like confusion and sadness. He sat on the bed beside Rochelle and looked back at me.

"Mhmm." Ro's face shifted into a frown.

"How're ya feelin', girl?" Ellis' expression was soft and I just looked at him from my knees and blinked. I didn't know how I felt, besides feeling a tinge of nausea. I shrugged since I didn't have anything to tell the others. Ellis took his hat off to run a hand through his brown tresses, and sighed. When he looked back, he had his ever resilient smile, "Yeah...well, anyone hungry? I bet I could cook a mean meal outta what we got here."

.

We sat around in the main room we were using, since it had a TV and DVD's. We lucked out and got a bunch of Christmas specials like 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' and other fun stuff you watch over the holidays. If anything, it was for Maddy's sake...it didn't feel right somehow to be watching it otherwise.

While Ellis set up the TV, I forced the steak down my throat, since that was about all Ellis knew how to cook at that point, even if it was more than well done and a little too charred. At least I didn't have to smell it being cooked. I'd probably have died if that were the case. It had been a few hours since the morning's incident, and neither Nick nor Luke was anywhere to be seen. Fluffy was absentmindedly fiddling around with a pillow, tearing out the fluffy insides and seeing if it tasted any good. Until he made a face and Ellis felt bad for him and chucked him a piece of his burnt steak. Fluffy was beginning to become more and more like a pet you get used of.

"Rikki?" Maddy's little voice perked through my vague thoughts as she looked back at me with her big hazel eyes, "Where's Mr. Nick?"

I thought about that for a couple of minutes while watching Sally forget her only line for the Christmas play. I felt a smile spread across my face, though I think it was more for show since I didn't feel happy as I answered her. And I knew exactly why I wasn't happy, despite the small smile I gave to Maddy.

I was already starting to miss Nick.

"I don't know, sweetheart." I half flinched as I habitually said that last word to Maddy.

* * *

**Nick's POV**

I said I'd be right back. I know that, I freaking know that. But plans changed after that stupid spitter had the gull to spit on the last of the coffee; so I went to find some place that _did_ have untouched coffee. On top of all that, it decided to snow. Hard.

I was kind of walled up in the cafe across the street from the hotel, called Flavours or something like that. Then the tanks came around. I decided it'd be safer to just sit tight in the back until they wandered away. Luck being on my side, there was a working computer in the back office. I figured I might as well see if there was any chance we could get out of there after the coming snow storm cleared up. I hoped the tanks were gone by then.

I didn't know the first thing about how to contact the other half of the group. I didn't know any of their full names besides, "Leopold _J_ Thorton...Heh."

Feeling somewhat accomplished, I didn't really know how to actually _find_ him online. Besides...Facebook. I didn't bother with social networks, since it wasn't really easy to erase myself from the internet; so I decided to make my very first account. After lots of lagging, it finally put me on to my homepage. It was not the time for filling out the useless crap about me, so I just searched his name and it popped up. His girlfriend was listed as Jude Bass, now I don't know if it was pronounced like the fish or the guitar, but I assumed I had the right one.

"You dork, you better get us outta here..." I muttered to no one in particular while typing out a message:

_Hey, it's Nick, we're fine. But it's getting too damned cold to stay out here much longer._

_Do you have any idea –of course you do– on how to get us wherever you are? Well, it says Valancy Summit, so how about getting us there?_

I hit enter and decided to sip on my coffee and keep and eye outside to make sure there weren't any zombies wandering around inside. The messaging thing said he was typing. Then I heard the howl of the wind and grunts of the zombies and tanks, and then I was pitched into blackness as I heard everything turn off.

"Come off it. You fucking kidding me?" I wanted to yell at something, but those zombies weren't deaf. I had a feeling I was stuck there until further notice.

All that was left to do was wait until the storm cleared up, that and think things over some coffee and smokes.

.

I sat there for hours, occasionally looking out the door to see an almost complete white-out outside. Even if I knew which way to head back to the hotel, I'd have to sneak around a few more than a thousand zombies, including too many tanks to count that were sniffing about and hopping around squishing their fellow zombies.

There was a body lying behind the counter that I hadn't noticed at first; it had a wrist watch. It read eight fifty-seven, so I figured I might as well get some sleep.

... ... ...

I woke with a start, from what I don't know. But I do know that I was actually happy that I was awake at all. Okay, I know what I woke up from, it was the same dream I'd been having since I walled up in the cafe.

The first thing I thought, all things considered, was Maddy. That kid, just something about Maddy made me feel guilty for being gone for days, at least, that's what I figured since I lost track of time as I wondered about how I'd get back. Also about how they would accept me back, since they probably thought I took off, never to be heard of or seen again. I looked outside to still see the same crowd that would've greeted me if I had left the night before, or the night before that.

"So much for that..." I grumbled; I was more than annoyed that I couldn't just tip-toe across the street like I did a few days before. Especially since I could barely see out the window; I chanced it and peeked outside and heard the zombies over the wind. The power wasn't back on, and it didn't look like it would be coming back for awhile. I went back to the office and grumbled. "Now what..."

I sat back and looked around in the dark office; there was enough light from outside to see most of it, so I check the drawers to see if there was anything to eat in them. If there was, it probably wasn't any good, but it was something to do. And hope for, since I skipped out on dinner without meaning to that night I left. On the bright side, I found a stack of cards and a few chocolate bars. After eating one chocolate bar, I sighed thinking back to the morning I woke up to see Rikki's sleeping face. She was so content, and so close to me. And she smelled just like that first day I woke up with her beside me. I don't know why, but somehow it seemed easier then, even if Rikki was pregnant that whole time.

Sometimes, those test things were wrong, right? Actually, Rikki and Ro probably knew that and made sure by testing more than once before even considering telling me. I wish I picked up on her condition before that whole Luke trying to kill her though. I don't exactly know what I would've _done_, but it would've been easier to hear it from her, somehow. I thought about how I first reacted, I felt kind of stupid about it. Why did I have to go and leave? For all I knew, they could've been off on a helicopter without me hearing or seeing it and I was just worrying about sweet nothings since I'd be here by myself as the only live person in a hundred mile radius.

Shaking that thought out of my head, because it was an uncomfortable one, I tried to imagine something comforting. My mind kept going back to a smile. I was thinking of smiles from Maddy, from Rikki, hell even thinking of Ellis' dumbass smile made me feel a little better, but only a little. At least I knew I had something to go back to, granted they were still there. I felt my hands moving and looked down to see that I was subconsciously setting up the only one player card game I knew, solitaire. With a smile with nothing behind it, I decided I might as well play it, since playing cards normally kept my mind off of things at hand.

It didn't help.

What pissed me off the most was that of all the things my mind was capable of thinking; it kept winding down to settle with thinking of Rikki. I wondered how she was doing, how mad she'd be at me even if I came back, what she could be thinking, and if she was waiting for me.

Then I felt my mind make something feel certain for the first time in days; I knew she was waiting. And I also knew it was my fault that she was in the situation she was in, regardless of how it happened. It was my kid too, and I had to hone up to that responsibility. That meant I had to go back, and that there was now a set time we had to get to Valancy Summit, and that I had to protect her, no matter what.

The last thing my mind decided for itself was probably more unsettling than having to protect Rikki. I missed her. A lot.

I didn't feel like playing cards anymore.

.

Lighting a cigarette, I leaned back in the office chair and looked up at the ceiling even if I couldn't really see it. I decided to go through pretty much everything.

So, to start everything off; I left Atlantic City in a rage. My theory of that wife of mine was cheating on top of being a bitch turned out to be right. That cheating bitch. So to get even, I took her Lexus for a cruise. Not that I was the victim or anything, after all, I _was_ Victor Harrelson to her for that year of being married. She was loaded and totally infatuated with me, and I think I even believed for a time that I could redeem myself and maybe even love her if I came clean with her and about who I was. At least I didn't go that far; there were days I noticed her wedding band was off when she was mad at me. I assumed that at least. I found out why when I found some guy named Steve wandering around looking for the front door; he told me he'd be back that night since her husband was out of town if 'I knew what he meant'. He thought I was a worker at that mansion.

I wanted to just get out of the state. That's what I did, all before she could even account for one missing car. I ended up eight-hundred miles away in Savannah, Georgia. Poker would clear up my mind, but what took over my mind before I could even act on getting to a poker table; emergency broadcasts came on every radio channel. Deciding I should listen to the broadcasts, I ended up seeing a lot of helicopters taking off from rooftops. I parked the car in front of some building that said it was an Evac-Station. There were three other people hustling into the building. One of them yelled at me to follow them. He called himself, and looked like a, Coach. It feels like the rest was just history that I didn't want to mull over, since in the beginning, it was a real fucking nightmare.

At least I had that cold comfort that I didn't have anyone to lose. I never thought, though, that I'd have anyone ever care for me like I'd come to believe they did.

Okay, I suck at thinking things over. I fell asleep. And for once, I didn't have that dream of being alone and dying. But I'm not so sure I liked the dream that I _did_ have, either.

It was like a stupid commercial showing the perfect family in the fifties or some shit, with myself walking through the front door and picking up Maddy in a sweeping hug after a day's work. I carried her into the kitchen, where a black haired baby sat in a highchair, playing with noodles instead of eating them. Rikki was in the kitchen humming a song that seemed familiar, but I couldn't place what it was. Then she turned around and smiled at me, just a smile. I felt myself smiling and then...I woke up.

Smiling like a god damned idiot.

* * *

**A/N: Ho ho ho, doesn't this just put you in the mood for Christmas? :C**

**I know it doesn't, and that at this point, this story is kind of pissing me off since it derailed itself from my mind for soooooo long and from it's happy starting. I hope it gets better for the survivors, sooooon. Also, it's annoying me because The Walking Dead is annoying me too; both stories started mildly happy/angsty and then turned into **Days of our Lives: Zombie Edition**. With little to no zombies. Sorry about that. But I thought of it first, well technically no, because the Walking Dead came out as comics first...semantics. **

**I can't wait until they get to Valancy Summit, since that's really what my story was supposed to be about, but the characters developed their own personalities and wants and needs and voices. The damned voices caused this story to be soo long before MY idea is allowed to be out in the open. I'm not crazy, whatever you may think. Sorry for rambling. Please tell me your thoughts an opinions even if it's anonymous, I love reviews. They make me happy, and when I'm happy I write. (hopefully/normally about happier things)**

**~Grammatica~**


	23. Holiday Blues

**A/N: Well then, I'm supremely-freaking-sorry it took so long to get this chapter up and running. I'm hoping to start writing again, I've been blocked by my time schedule since most of my time is devoted to College, then the rest of the time (what little there is) is committed to having a social life xD**

**That doesn't seem like much of an excuse, but I've also felt extremely blocked when I DO get a chance to write, even with the story board in front of me. I'm playing L4D2 just to get back into the zombie mood. :)**

**Anyhow, hello there... I've missed ya'll. Good day, and have fun reading! :D**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Three: Holiday Blues**

**Nick's POV**

It was Christmas. I was staring out at the crowds of zombies that were falling over every now and then from the cold, at least that's what I hoped. There were periods when the power would come back, but I was more interested in getting back to the hotel by then. Knowing Ellis, he'd convince those idiots to stay in one place to celebrate Christmas, and that I would show up for sure if they waited.

That was another one of my hopes.

Over the days, that same dumb dream of mine replayed until it became impossible to go back to sleep. I didn't know what to make of it. I had run out of chocolate bars two days before, which was also around the time when I just stopped sleeping. I felt kind of worn down at that point, which didn't help me be the most optimistic about my outlook on the whereabouts of my team. Not like I'm ever optimistic, and I'm okay with that.

Even if I lucked out and they were still in the hotel, what would I even say? Would it really be necessary? I didn't want it to be, but something told me to just calm down and focus on the hope that they were even still there. If not...well I didn't want to consider what I'd do if they weren't there.

At that moment, I heard something outside, and it was loud. A helicopter was flying above, but I did **not** want to be picked up by it since it was shooting at the crowd of zombies that was blocking my way to the hotel. If I just stayed put for a few more minutes, I had my chance to get back. But I hated waiting; I'd waited for four days as it was. Then a thought struck me; as much as I hated to remember that Rikki was pregnant, I thought of what I could bring that would be helpful. There was that pharmacy across the lot from me. I didn't even hear the chopper leave while I was wondering if it was worth it to go over to the pharmacy.

I decided that it was worth the trip.

"Time to go…" I spoke to nobody, but it made me reaffirm that I was going. As the door opened and fresh air came breezing in, I realized that I could no longer smell the decaying bodies that were walking around only minutes before. "Thank God for winter."

Once I had found what I was looking for, I wasted no time in running back to the hotel across the street.

* * *

**Rikki's POV**

It had been days since Nick had left, and I already doubted that he'd come back. I felt stupid for thinking that he'd change his…ways if he learned he'd be a father. I was also mulling over the whole pregnancy idea; what kind of world can this kid expect apart from death all around, what damage I had already done to the child by drinking and smoking, as limited as that had been I wasn't comfortable knowing I had…and on top of my list of worries; I had taken an awful lot of beatings trying to make it to the hotel we were in. I had a feeling it would be one messed up little dude, and I didn't like that thought at all.

Maddy spent most of her time coloring, which must've been boring as crap with just a black Sharpie. Most of her drawings were of three crudely drawn people figures holding hands. It would've been more cute had the three figures not have been holding guns and dead looking people with X's for eyes lying all around. She also spent a lot of time being awake and waiting on the balcony, waiting to catch a glimpse of white in the whiteout outside, which must have been equally as boring.

Point in case, Maddy wasn't doing so well. She was lonely. I'd like to say it rubbed off from her to feel lonely too, but that didn't seem to be the case. Ellis did everything in his power to keep our spirits up though; playing redundant games of 'hide and seek' and 'I spy' with Maddy, telling bullshit stories about his hick friends that always seemed to be facing death and making fun out of it, and just being Ellis in general.

Maddy talked herself to sleep with Fluffy and Ellis, mostly about how she knew Nick would return and everything would be back to 'normal', whatever that was. Ellis talked her into sleep too, since he told her Santa wouldn't come if she stayed up all night. So I decided I'd stand watch at the balcony, since Ro and Luke had already gone to bed.

It was cold and dark but white at the same time. But at least it was a small break, since I could watch the snow fall forever and never get bored of it. I don't know how long I sat there, staring at nothing, until I felt a hand on my shoulder. I don't know why I half expected it to be Nick's or why my shoulders drooped when it was just Ellis coming to check on me. Scratch that, I knew perfectly well why, I just felt better pretending to not know. Pretty sad, right?

"Yew've been standing out here for hours, yew should get some sleep too, y'know." Ellis' voice was soft as he led me indoors, he spoke like I'd have a choice but I really didn't; he was scooting me off to bed. I yawned despite myself. "See, yew need ta sleep."

"Do you think he split because I'm pregnant?" That question had been nagging at me day and night since Nick left. I laid down and looked at Maddy who was all cuddled up to Fluffy's chest; as much as it bugged me that she cuddled with that thing, at least she was kept warmer than our blankets could provide. She always woke up colder than holy hell when she slept with me. Ellis lay down on his side, eyeing me carefully. Everything he did around me was careful, it seemed.

"Naw, I think he'll be back. I mean…he don' seem the type to jus up 'n leave anymore." Ellis smirked lightly as he nudged my arm, "Thanks ta someone."

"If you say so, El." I sighed, pulling the other blanket over the two of us. I shuddered, and it wasn't from the cold. I felt tears welling up and I cursed myself for that; stupid hormones. Ellis peeked over; he was trying to sleep and I wrecked that by choking on a cry that wanted to leave my throat for some reason.

"Hey, hey don' go cryin' front' of Ellis." Ellis scooted over and threw an arm over me; he'd still slept on the bed since Nick left. It wasn't awkward exactly, but it was strange; we tried to get everyone to sleep on the same bed…but obviously Luke wanted nothing to do with that, so Maddy slept with Fluffy, Ro and Luke stayed in the other room and Ellis slept by me. "Everything'll be fine, yew'll see. Jus get some sleep, please?"

I just nodded and tucked my head under Ellis' chin, which made him chuckle after a few minutes. "Ya think Nick would have a heart attack if he came back right now? Y'know, he's beginning ta be at that age…"

That, I admit, made me laugh a little.

…

We awoke to a helicopter sound, and the others rushed into the room as Maddy hopped on top of Ellis and I.

"What the hell?" Ro just raised a brow at the three of us, "Don't let Nick know you guys are that close…"

"That's not what we should be worrying about right now…what are we waiting for? There's a chopper right out-" Luke was cut off since the chopper opened fire and made it near impossible to hear. "Ahh Christ…I guess not."

"Mommy, I'm scared…" Maddy sat in my lap and placed her head on my chest, I just covered her ears with my hands as best as I could. "They're not looking for us, are they?"

"Don't think so sweetie, just sit tight." I decided to just ignore Ro's comment.

After the next twenty minutes went by, it fell silent. I decided to speak up. "Y'know, it's pretty sad that we're trying to get to those same people that aren't looking for people."

.

Maddy, Ellis and I were playing charades since the power decided to be crappy. It was on for one minute, then half off because the hotel seemed to have its own generator, then off completely. For the past half-hour, Maddy had been sitting in a curled ball with her hands sticking out in both directions on top of her head, with her eyes closed. Ellis and I turned to one another, completely confused as to what Maddy was still trying to portray to us.

"Uh…a boomer stuck in a box?" Ellis piped up after a few minutes of staring at the child. She simply shook her head with her eyes still closed. "Aww…"

"Ellis…how does that even _look_ like that?" I shook my head. I still had no clue what she was doing so I tried, and failed. "A garbage bag? I dunno…"

Another headshake was given.

"Well, I give up…don't yew hurt sittin' like that Madds?" Ellis stretched in his spot. Maddy simply stood up in a flash and started stretching her limbs.

"I was a _present_ you idiots." Maddy rolled her eyes, "Really, how hard was that?"

"Hey now, name callin's not called fer Maddy." Ellis put on a small pout. I just nodded to agree with him. It didn't feel like Christmas, and I knew why. Five out of twelve were present for the holidays, and it sure didn't seem like a time to be celebrating commercialism that was getting passed up as a religious event anyways. Besides, Jesus was born on Easter, that's what I was always taught.

"Well, it's called for when it's the truth, ya idiot." A voice at the doorway grabbed everyone's attention at once, to see a snow covered Nick standing at the doorway. Maddy reacted first, by dropping the magazine she'd started to pretend to read.

"**Mr NICK**!" She ran straight towards him and hopped up as she threw her arms around the man we'd all seemed to be waiting for. "We missed you lots and lots, why'd you leave us? How come? Is it because-"

"Hey, hey now, one question at a time kiddo." Nick was holding Maddy since she hopped up into his arms, and he looked exhausted. She simply nodded and smiled as she dusted off the snow on his shoulder and placed her head there. Maddy had been staying up for as long as possible since Nick left, and refused to sleep until one of us would lie to her and say that he would be right there when she woke up. Obviously, it only worked when she was super tired and willing to believe anything, and on top of that, she only woke up a few hours later to go sit out on the balcony. "Huh?"

"She wouldn't sleep without yew, dumbass." Ellis shook his head, looking unsure about how to react to Nick's presence, now that he was there. None of us had actually expected him to come back, in fact; we were planning on leaving the next day.

"Y'know, I expected more of a 'Merrrrrry Christmas, ya'll, Nick's back!' from you El." Nick's grin kind of dispelled the uneasy atmosphere that had build up since he didn't return. Rochelle simply sighed and shook her head with a small smile; Luke just gave an acknowledging nod with an unreadable expression, Ellis looked less than impressed, and I didn't know what to do besides stare dumbly at the figure. I almost didn't even believe he was there. His stare met mine as he shut the door; I must've had a smile on my face anyways, since a small smirk greeted me, with an apologetic feel to it.

There were a few moments of an awkward silence; just a few glances were exchanged.

"Yeah? I missed you guys too." Nick shrugged as he laid Maddy onto Fluffy's lap. "Hey big guy."

Fluffy only grunted with his tongue lolling about as his mouth twitched into a sort of smile. Maddy had adorned the giant with a Christmas hat that she found somewhere. It was the only thing besides the few candles we had lit to light the room that made it feel somewhat Christmas-y.

Rochelle and Luke kind of just stood up and left to their room. I think that Ro wanted Nick to tell me first why he left, because she tried to motion to Ellis to follow, but he didn't catch her drift as they left. That and the two were griping about how they both knew that Nick would never come back for the few days he was gone; it was thrown in their faces that they were wrong and they didn't like to be wrong, it was shown by their expressions they all but threw at Nick.

I knew he had his reasons for leaving. At least he came back, which was more than I could ask for, just saying.

"Well…what do ya got to say for yerself?" Ellis' arms had crossed as he gave an inquisitive glance at Nick who was shaking off his jacket and hanging it up. A hint of a smile graced Ellis' features, I believe I've said it before, but it was hard to keep Ellis mad at anything. Nick just stared for a few minutes before shrugging.

"I don't know why you guys waited around for me?" Nick was still Nick; he hated apologies and we all knew that, and he also had a habit of pretending that nobody cared for him.

"Heeeyy now, don't go flatterin' yerself and thinking we was waiting on yew. We were gonna leave after we celebrated Christmas, since _somebody_ didn' wanna." Ellis smirked as he lay back on the bed, looking over at Nick with a playful glance. Nick simply shook his head with a small eye roll.

"Yeah, Merry Christmas to you too, buddy." Nick's face looked a little sunken with rings hanging around his eyes like he'd barely slept. Ellis simply chuckled as he stood up to go clap a hand on Nick's back with a grin.

"I knew yew'd come back…y'know cause it'd be boring for yew ta not have anyone ta pick on and all that shit." Ellis gave a smug smirk at the conman. Nick just nudged him with yet another eye roll. "Ah, come on man, why don't ya jus admit tha yew love us all too much ta actually _leave_. I mean, remember that time when ya left and told the three of us that yew were '_never ever fucking coming back_'? And then ya came back the next day? And then-"

"Okay, time to shut up now." Nick just shoved past a chuckling Ellis. He sat down on the bed behind me to lie down, and as he stared at the ceiling he said, "You guys are alright; I like to stick around people that are alright. Okay?"

"Yeah yeah, we love ya too buddy." The southerner seemed to finally catch Ro's signal since she didn't close the door. "Oh, sorry Ro…I'll be back while yew two lovebirds talk your mistake of leaving us over…and uh…yeah."

.

With that, naturally everything was silent as I chose to keep my back to Nick. He seemed content in not talking either, but spoke first anyways after a few, long minutes.

"I really didn't mean to be gone that long, you know that right?" Nick had a tone that sounded strange; I think it was guilt that sounded in his voice. But I'm not sure.

"I don't know Nick, I mean you kind of _do_ come off as someone who puts himself first before realizing he shouldn't…" Nick just sighed and stayed quiet for a few moments.

"Oh, okay then. If I put myself first, then I would've come back sooner and led all those zombies up here instead of waiting them out without food and sleep, just to keep myself from wondering for four long days if you guys decided to leave without me or not. How selfish of me." Nick's tone had changed into annoyance, and I flinched a little. I realized that I had my own tendencies of doing stuff I shouldn't…it must've come across as me trying to pick a fight with him. Maybe I was, but I really did think he didn't change and just left his problems behind.

"Why do I bother telling you how I feel, you won't accept it anyways." I sighed.

"Likewise." Nick sat up to dig in his pocket. He walked around the bed to stand in front of me, but I kept my eyes on the ground. He knelt down and looked right at me, his expression in is ever stoic poker face that I hated, since I could never tell what he was thinking. "Hey, I know…I mean I know I'm not the most supporting guy on the block, but hear me out: I left for a cup of coffee, I swear. I got caught up and decided it wasn't safe to come back since there was a thousand zombie march, so I decided I'd wait until they were gone before I came back, since the last thing you need to be doing is killing off more zombies than you ought to."

I just let him talk, in fear of me saying something wrong. His hand brushed my hair behind my ear as he caught my gaze. I still didn't know how to reply, or react since he had such a soft tone while explaining himself.

"Well…I…really don't know what else to say besides that I… got these for you." Nick just sighed as he handed me a few bottles of prenatal vitamins and stretch mark oil stuff. I just stared dumbly at them as they sat in my lap. I think the reality of what was happening to me hit me, so I decided to remain quiet. It was taken wrong. "Fine, don't talk to me then."

"I missed you too." I spoke softly, still staring at the vitamins. Nick greeted this with a small smile as he rested his forehead against mine with a small sigh. He looked at the bed and back to me.

"Ellis hasn't been sleeping on here with you…has he?" Nick eyed me carefully, and then scowled. Nothing gets past him, I suppose. "That son of a-"

"Daddy, can you pass me some water?" Maddy sat up to interrupt before Nick could swear, with a sweet smile on her face to boot. She'd learned to remind people that there was a kid in the vicinity, meaning she must've decided to listen in on our little talk. Brat. Nick sighed as he complied.

"Good to be back…I guess." Nick shook his head with a hint of a smile.

* * *

**A/N: Yay! I'm done! I feel great! xD**

**:D**

**I'll feel better if ya'll review :)**


	24. Happy New Year

**A/N: Woooooooot! Okay, from now on, I'll keep trying. I haven't forgotten! :D**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Four: Happy New Year **

The next day nobody spoke much unless Maddy was talking to them. She spent most of her time trying to get an answer out of anyone about what the word 'pregnant' meant. On top of almost killing me twice, Luke decided he'd tell her.

"Luuuke...nobody's answering me...what does pregnant mean!" Maddy had grown tired of the silent treatment she got when she asked that question.

"It means your little birthday wish is coming true, Maddy." Luke said shortly, with a smug smirk on his face. I wished he'd just roll over and die. We had made it to the internet cafe Nick had stayed in, which had regained its power and was easier to get to than first thought, since the winter seemed to be slowing down the infected, and the helicopter's help from the day before.

"Really!" Maddy hopped around and ran back to me and grabbed my hand. "Is that true?"

"Is what true..." I sighed. Maddy didn't elaborate and took my slight annoyance as a 'yes'. At least I didn't have to give her the talk, Ro had already dealt with that. We were inside the cafe, and Nick went straight over to the counter to see what coffee was left. I went over to the row of surprisingly still untouched computers. I decided to see if any of them worked by turning them all on.

One turned on and functioned with the internet. I sat in front of it, and wondered what on earth I was even going to do with it. The smell of coffee drifted around the cafe. "Stupid internet..."

I sat there for a few minutes, and Nick came over with a cup of coffee and handed it to me without a word. Technically, I shouldn't have been drinking coffee, but there's a long list of things I couldn't do. Killing zombies was probably on top of the list.

Instinctively, I opened up Google and Facebook. If I was going to find any of the other six, my best bet would be through that. I remembered Leo saying there were other survivors that posted stuff on Facebook too. It was time to prove that Google Maps could save lives, too. Then I got to thinking, what if they didn't have access to computers? My best bet was to get a hold of Leo, since he would most likely be able to access a computer. So I typed in the search bar: "Leopold J Thorton."

I half laughed, remembering the first time we'd met him. Such a dork, but he was our dork. It came up though: 'Leopold J Thorton' lived in 'the zombie apocalypse town, Valancy Summit', in relationship with 'Jude Bass'. Bingo. "Christ...that was easier than I thought it would be..."

I messaged him with one question; "How do we get there?" and got an instant reply.

"RIKKI! I knew it! I just knew you guys weren't dead. We are kind of trapped right now...we've all been separated since we got here. OH, I almost forgot. I'll send a file that tells you how to get in without getting shot."

I sat there in confusion trying to get his message straight; our group was even more split up? Getting shot?

The file popped up and I opened it. It basically, I mean really basically since he had all these nerdy terms I had to decipher from time to time, said he was working as a scientist's assistant, and that we needed a clean sample of white blood cells, which we could possibly find in a hospital...or walk in clinic. And just before we got choppered in, we had to inject it to the arm we were gonna let the scientists jab with more needles. He said he'd do his best to be on the unit to greet us, which told me he didn't expect us to do it right anyways. I didn't blame him.

"I can't stay on here much longer, but your IP says you're all in 'Flavour' cafe in Toronto on Kennedy Road...I can't get a 'search and rescue' unit out there because going into cities is too dangerous for the pilots, which is sooooo helpful since I think that's where a lot of survivors are... Well in any case, I need you all to get out of town, just wait along the main highway that leads out of town on the north side, okay? Don't forget to bring paint so you can paint a sign to let the pilot know where you are! Put down 'Valancy Summit!'; that should send the message loud and clear. The unit should be headed out by two o'clock tomorrow, so I suggest leaving now! Talk later, survive now! Cya!"

That was it; all we had to do was find clean blood cells, get out of town with about a million zombies waiting around for us and head out to the highway and wait for rescue. Easy, right?

* * *

Wrong.

We had to leave the comfort of the cafe after I'd printed out Leo's email, go to the pharmacy across the lot, now that it was daytime we found that it was called the Kennedy South Square that specialized in pharmaceuticals. There was a walk-in clinic, and maybe, if we were lucky, there'd be what Leo needed us to get. Once we were inside, everyone guarded the walk-in clinic as Rochelle and I had rummaged around for needles and little pouches that were labelled 'white blood cells'. I don't believe in fate or anything of the sort, but it was all laid out in one shelf, neatly organized like it was just waiting to be packed away.

Once we had everything, it was off to find a mode of transportation. We went back to the hotel so we could grab a little more food. I admit that I was really jealous of the other adults who grabbed a bottle of alcohol for the trip. Maddy kept looking at me with her little smile, but remained quiet because it was agreed that we were to be as quiet as possible, since there was so many zombies that were standing around, listening out for fresh meat while standing in wait.

We got to a road that had an RV dealer, so we were on the lookout for the sturdiest one, which was assumed was the biggest one there, like our own large bus. But it was easier to get the keys instead of hotwiring, since there was probably an alarm that we did **not** want to set off in the middle of town. Using slight hand signals and mouthing words on which way to go, me, Maddy and Rochelle went to wait by the RV with Fluffy and the men went to go try finding the keys for the RV inside the dealership office. After memorizing the lot number, I ran off against Ro's quieted pleas for me to not leave them, to go tell the men; it would've made it so much easier to get the keys that way. At least, that's what I thought.

When I got near the building, I felt an arm grab me and I half yelled in fright. Ellis had grabbed me, and when I looked at his expression, I knew I wrecked something. There was glass breaking from the building and the ground shook so hard, I thought that somehow I'd triggered an earthquake. Then the roaring drowned out my stupid thoughts. I guess the men were trying to figure out some way to get into the building without startling the **tanks**. One was frightening enough, but there were about ten or so tanks that came bursting out of the dealership building.

"Dumbshit..." Nick growled at me, but I didn't have time to react. I just ran around and decided to chance it to weave through the tanks to get to the building that had set off alarms because of the windows being broken. "HEY! **Where are you going!**"

Ignoring them, I was surprised I actually made it in, since as powerful as tanks were, their only weakness was speed. Being the tiny person in comparison, it wasn't hard to know that it was relatively easy to run through the lumbering giants. I was also surprised that I recognized one particular roar. It was Fluffy, and he was definitely fending off the danger that was closing in on Maddy and Rochelle. I found the key cabinet almost immediately and broke the glass with my magnum. I didn't even notice that I cut myself on the glass until I had the key and it had a small line of blood dripping from the end of it. There were two sets of brass knuckles just sitting at the bottom of the cabinet. I didn't ask questions. I heard the cry of the hordes that were on their way to the RV parking lot. "Shit..."

Turning around while slipping on the brass knuckles, I heard the cries of my group; some in pain, some in fright. I also heard the gruff breathing of a tank that was not at all too far from me. I only had my magnums on me since I left my machete and the empty M16 behind with the other girls. I heard a few tanks die. I hoped it wasn't Fluffy. The growling turned into a deep roar and I turned to face something that looked like the king of tanks. "HOLY CRAP!"

I didn't even want to bother trying to shoot at that thing, and turned to run. Its leg length really helped it sprint forward as I felt a huge hand barely smack me from behind, and it still sent me flying through the already broken window. Once fully outside, I disregarded the pain I had shooting through me and ran towards where I had last seen my group. I heard their frantic cries, yelling out for me and each other in the group of zombies that had everyone surrounded.

I found the bag of pipe bombs and bile bombs, and few hastily made molotov's that the guys must've packed, just in case. And since the King Tank (that's all I could call it) had lumbered over and away from me for the time being, I threw a bile bomb at the King Tank, which only pissed it off. I also threw a lot of pipe bombs away from my group so I could get to them. Maddy was hiding under the RV and Rochelle and Luke were cornered by three tanks. Rochelle stabbed one with my machete right between its eyes. Luke got smacked aside and Maddy screamed from underneath the RV. Ellis and Nick were running off in the same direction, trying to lead the hordes away from the RV and trying to shoot the tanks at the same time. I took out the pipe bombs and chanced where I was throwing them at, since I couldn't see Nick or Ellis anymore. I yelled out so that maybe they could at least be aware that there were some "**BOMBS AWAY!**"

With two tanks down that I had witnessed go down apart from the three that were lying around when I had reached Maddy and Ro, and three that were also running after Ellis and Nick, I noticed I didn't see the other two that had ran out of the building initially. Nor did I spot the big-ass King Tank. I doubted anyone killed it. The alarm of the dealership was still loud and clear, so it seemed like for each zombie I killed, three more replaced it. Frustrated, I remembered the brass knuckles I had and decided to just let loose. It was both faster, but much more tiring. Besides, I needed the bullets I had left for the tank that was chasing Luke around the RV. Fluffy was chasing the tank behind Luke. I would've laughed if it wasn't so serious. Rochelle tossed me the machete and I waited on one side of the RV for Luke to run by me. Jumping out at the last possible second so the tank couldn't react; I stabbed it right in the face with a jump and pushed my feet off its chest so it landed backwards. Fluffy was behind the fallen tank and slid to a halt with a grunt and a small smile of confusion. I heard Ellis' cry for Nick.

I also remembered I had the key to the RV. Luke yelled out as I heard that monstrous roar again. I realised that everything I was hearing was drowning out the loud alarm of the RV dealership. Maddy had been thinning out the crowds of zombies from underneath the RV, yelling and crying for her "**MOMMY!**"

Rochelle had disappeared from the side of the RV; I had seen a flash of pink head towards the dealership building, and then I heard less noise as the alarm had been turned off. I heard pipe bombs exploding and boomers gurgling, with hunters growling and the stomping of tanks. The King Tank had disappeared somewhere, as did Luke. Half-worried, I threw bile bombs at anything away from what was left of my group, meaning me and Maddy. Once the zombies decided to chase after a few hunters and then each other, I saw that Fluffy was still in close combat with yet another tank. I heard the unfamiliar roar of two chainsaws and maniacal laughing. I guessed that Nick and Ellis had found a hardware store while being chased. Rochelle had taken her place near Maddy again, and I was busy using up the pipe bombs and trying to drive away as many zombies as I could. Luke suddenly flew by me and landed on the ground near Ro. He got back up, but it looked like adrenaline drove him more over than not being hurt. "RIKKI LOOK OUT!"

I turned around just in time to feel like I had fallen from some place and smacked the ground. The world disappeared around me as I fell into blackness.

* * *

**A/N: Two chapters in one day! Okay…back to college life. I have midterms to worry about now…so don't expect much until further notice…I'M SORRY! :(**

**Stay tuned, I'll be back before you know it :D**

**~Grammatica~**


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